


I Will Follow You Into The Dark

by MeredithBrody



Category: NCIS: New Orleans
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 33,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6113269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meredith Brody got edited photos leading her to solve Emily's death, but when she gets a message that Emily may be alive... her world is turned totally upside down as her team race to help her find her sister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this came to me in a dream. Tell me if I should continue.

“ _ Your sister is alive. _ ”

That had been all the text message said. No details, no location or anything. Just a message stating that her sister was alive. That had been enough for Meredith to start searching for the sender. She was sure that it was the person who had been sending her photos. Maybe that website was wrong, maybe it wasn’t a murder. Maybe it was an extremely cleverly disguised kidnapping.

Work had been slow for a couple of days, working on non-urgent cases and cold cases was all the NCIS team could do. Brody didn’t mind that so much, as at least it meant she was getting home on time. Given that James had been in town for the last week, she was enjoying that. Sitting there, looking through the file she was working on she was only half aware of Percy and LaSalle bickering on their side of the office. “Merri, you got another letter to the Jackal.” Were the first words spoken to break her out of her reverie, where she’d just been thinking about who, or what, it could be that had told her her sister was alive.

“Thanks LaSalle.” She said mindlessly, taking the letter and opening it, before the picture inside slid out. It was A4 sized photo paper, and on it was a face on image of a woman who looked suspiciously like her. “Oh my god.” She muttered, dropping the envelope and sitting down. Apparently, her reaction had been intense enough that both Percy and LaSalle ran over, looking at the photo over her shoulder.

“Wait, what is that… is that you?” Percy asked, clearly studying Merri from the side. That made sense in a way, because the photograph was so similar. If Meredith hadn’t known that there were no photographs from what happened to her, the video was being held by NCIS, and there had never been stills. Also, the hair was wrong for it to have been her. This definitely wasn’t her, and given the similarities… the only person it could be was Emily.

“No. There were no pictures when… and I had short hair.” She’d never spoken to her New Orleans colleagues about that assignment, the closest she’d come had been with LaSalle, when they’d had a case involving a serviceman who had been tortured. Maybe he’d noticed more during that case than he’d let on. 

“Brody… she is identical to you.” LaSalle said, looking between the woman on the photo and Brody sat beside him. She knew what the others were doing, despite the fact that she hadn’t been able to tear her eyes away from the woman in the photograph. The quality wasn’t great, but she could see bruises and discolouration on almost all her visible skin. Her hair looked thin and brittle. There wasn’t enough detail to make out most landmarks, but she was sure this was her twin sister. 

“Wait, didn’t you have a twin?” Came the next question, and Brody paused for a second. She wanted to touch the picture, imagine that it was her sister for just a moment. It had been almost nine years since she’d seen any evidence of her sister, and she’d spent the last year finally mourning. She was so far gone that it took clicking fingers and another barked question for her to pay attention. “Brody, a twin?”

“Yeah, Emily.” She just nodded, not sure what else she could do. Was this how she’d looked when she’d been found? Though she’d only been gone a week. She remembered though that it had taken weeks for her injuries to heal, and for her to be able to look at herself. Seeing this picture… It took her back to that day, and to all the problems she had had adjusting when she came home. 

“Identical?” Percy asked, and Brody realised that she’d never really shown her colleagues any pictures of Emily. She kept them close to her, hidden away like most other aspects of her life. She wasn’t very open with a lot of things, and she liked keeping Emily private. She shared her with James, and her parents. That was it, because nobody else in her life had met Emily.

“Mirror, we looked almost the same, but in reverse.” At the confused looks from her colleagues Brody tore her eyes away from the photograph and looked at the other two agents in the room. She was clearly going to have to explain what it meant to be a mirror twin. “What I had on my left side she had on her right. I’m even left handed.”

“Pride!” LaSalle had clearly heard enough, and decided it was time for their boss to learn about this situation. He was probably right too, she probably should have brought Pride in two days ago when she got the text, but she hadn’t been certain it was credible. It could have been some crazy person trying to get her back up. Now though… There was evidence.

It took a few seconds, but obviously LaSalle shout had sounded urgent enough that Pride had come running, racing his way down the stairs. He looked over the three agents and Brody wondered what it was that they would say. She wasn’t sure she could say, because speaking would make this whole situation real, and she just wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t ready for this to be her life now, and for this to be their next case. “What is it?”

“We got a picture sent to us… of Brody’s sister.” LaSalle was clearly trying to be subtle about it, but it wasn’t working. No matter how that was said she still couldn’t really believe those words were being said in conjunction with her and Emily. 

“You got another sister?” Pride looked at her and she knew the question wasn’t meant to be insensitive, yet it still stung. Everybody had thought Emily was dead, people had died because she thought Emily was dead. There were more lives at stake here than just hers or Emily’s… but if this was true she could get her sister back.

“No. It’s Emily. She…” Brody started, but she couldn’t continue. She couldn’t face any of this if it wasn’t true. She could lose her sister all over again, and she didn’t think she was strong enough to cope with that. Losing Emily once had hurt enough. A second time would push her over the edge. It was best that she pretend that this wasn’t Emily, at least until it was a fact she couldn’t refute.

“Tell me.” Pride said, coming and standing beside her. She felt his hand on her shoulder and tried to focus on that minute touch for a moment. She needed grounding again and right now, of the people in this room, Pride was the best one to do it. Brody just wasn’t prepared to deal with this, and on top of that, she still wasn’t sure she could believe that Emily was alive. 

So she tried to do what she always did, she buried her emotions as deep as she possibly could, and tried to answer as dispassionately as was possible. “I got a text, a few days ago. I didn’t bring it up with anyone but Patton because there was nothing I could prove, and the sender covered his tracks well.” She hated admitting that, but Patton had found nothing concrete. So all she had was what it contained, and now all this.

“What did it say?” Pride asked, still with his hand on her shoulder. She knew the others were still nearby, and in a way that helped, but she was also beginning to feel watched, and her instant desire was to run, to escape as far as she could and not have to fret about anything more. That wouldn’t work though, this team showed her running didn’t work, so she needed to push through one more thing and tell them what was happening. 

“It just said ‘your sister is alive’.” She held her phone out to Percy then stood up and started moving. There was no thought to it, but she just couldn’t stop herself from moving. “I need air.” She couldn’t stay, she needed to be away from that table, and away from that photo. She knew there was a lot she needed to explain, and she needed to work on to solve this, but she was going to throw up if she didn’t move.

“Brody.” She heard called after her, but she didn’t stop, not even for a second. She just ran up the stairs and through the building. Needing fresh air and a break away from people. A few gulps of fresh air, and an ability to look into the sky made it easier for her to pretend that she wasn’t at breaking point already, and they weren’t even investigating yet. After a few minutes she heard soft footsteps behind her, and she knew that Pride had followed her out. “We’re going to start investigating this. Clearly… whoever has your sister wants her to be found.”

“I knew… there was something more to it King.” Maybe she should have pushed more, because it just hadn’t added up for her. She had somehow known that there was something wrong with Emily’s death but she’d never really pushed. Once her mother had put her foot down that was it, and at the time Brody hadn’t been strong enough to pursue it alone. “I always knew but I was beaten back… told I was imagining things.” That had probably been the hardest to deal with, but maybe then it had been true… now it wasn’t.

“We’ll work this out, Meredith, and we’ll find your sister.” At Pride’s kind words she just turned to face him a little more, because that was a lot to promise a broken girl, especially after almost nine years of believing there was nothing more to it, and discovering that was possibly wrong. “We’ll get you closure.” That was another big promise, but coming from Pride and her team here, it seemed a little more possible.

“I don’t know if I can do this. “ She whispered, and felt Pride pulling her into a gentle hug. She hadn’t realised how much she’d needed that until this minute, someone to just hold her and pull her back from the brink. It was enough to hold her over now, and after a second she pulled back and spoke her biggest fear about this whole situation. “What if… it’s some elaborate prank, or it’s otherwise not real?”

Pride just stepped back a little further, adding a little more professional distance to the conversation. That was exactly what was needed now. “Is the woman in the photo your sister?” He asked, and she thought through every feature she’d seen. The woman in the photograph had been almost completely identical to her, though it had been hard to see every detail, and there could still be mistakes.

“Yes.” She commented, and at the look Pride gave her, the one that reminded her to challenge her own preconceived notions, she thought through the evidence and tried to think of something, anything, that could convince her that the woman in the photograph was Emily. That was when she realised that the woman’s legs had been showing. She hadn’t focused on them, but she knew it would work. “I think so. I’d need to see her leg amplified.”

“Why?” Pride’s confusion was obvious, but on top of that she knew that maybe specifying her leg not her face was weird. At least that one was something that she could explain easily, as it was probably one of the easiest ways to identify her sister there was.

“We both have a birthmark. Me on my right leg, her on her left.” She smiled wryly and motioned down to her leg. She wasn’t going to show it, but she knew that was the way to prove it. The birthmarks weren’t impressive, they weren’t big or a particular shape… what they were was identical, and that would be the easiest proof for Brody that the woman was her sister. “Her left leg is showing. Birthmark, it’s Emily, no birthmark, it’s not.”

“We’ll leave that with Sebastian. With the connection to you… I can make it an NCIS case, but you can’t take the lead on this. You know that.” Pride was right, but she wanted to. This was her sister, her family. After opening her mouth to argue she just stopped and shook her head before nodding, accepting that it needed to be this way. “We’ll find Emily, I promise. James is still in town right?” How Pride remembered one comment she’d made days ago she didn’t know, but he had, and James being there would be helpful. “I’ll call him, get him to come and sit with you. Go on, to the conference room.” He motioned back in, and she just nodded. They had a case now, one that she shouldn’t be an active participant in. All Brody hoped was that Emily was alive, and that they could find her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I was shouted at by several people (including two who aren't even in this fandom, thanks to my RL "squad" members Laura and Helen) to continue this soooooooooo... here is chapter 2.

James had been unceremoniously kicked out of bed this morning by a girlfriend who had been anxious to get to work. He understood her drive, but he really hadn’t appreciated the kick. But they’d both gotten up, and he’d been early to work. Which had lead to him doing most of his work early and just playing around with sources, trying to find another story that would keep him in New Orleans for longer, he was just enjoying being with Meredith so much. He was still thinking when he heard his phone, and seeing an unfamiliar but local number he just answered, assuming it was Meredith. “James Lathom.”

“James? It’s Special Agent Pride here, Brody’s boss.” For some reason, he wasn’t used to people calling Meredith just by her surname, purely because in their circle she tended to go by Merri. He was the only person who was allowed to call her MB, as far as he knew. When he got over that he suddenly realised that her boss had called him, and that probably wasn’t a good sign.

“God, what happened, is she OK?” He was certain that, if anything had happened to Meredith, her boss wouldn’t tell him on the phone. That was probably the one thing that would worry him more than anything, James loved her and the idea of losing her that he was suddenly faced with was slightly more than terrifying. 

“She’s OK, but we could do with you to come down to the office.” At least Pride had said that she was OK. If Merri was OK then he didn’t need to worry, but there was obviously a reason he’d been called by her boss. That was enough to worry him even if technically she was alright. “If you have any pictures of Brody and her sister… they’d be appreciated too.” Well, that was not what he’d been expecting. He had no idea why anyone would need pictures of Meredith and her sister.

“Sure, I’ll grab my laptop, I’ve got a lot.” Taking pictures wasn’t just his job, it was his hobby too, and taking pictures of his girlfriend and her twin had always been something he’d loved to do. But still, Emily had passed away, almost ten years ago. “You do know Emily is dead, right?” He just felt like it was probably best he point that out again, just in case it had somehow been missed at some point.

“I’ll tell you more when you get here.” That sounded a little more worrying. Even if Meredith was alright, he didn’t like the sound of it when someone said they wouldn’t tell him something until he was there in person. That worried him when it was a source, his boss, or really anyone. It was even more worrying when it was someone he loved.

“Fifteen minutes.” He looked at his watch and nodded, knowing that he could make it in less, but he wanted to make sure he had his laptop with him, and that he had all the pictures he’d taken of the Brody twins. If he was going to be showing them, he should have the best ones. “I gotta go, need to head over to NCIS. I’ll be back tomorrow.” He wasn’t even going to explain it to anyone, because going and making sure that Meredith was actually alright. He needed to see that with his own eyes.

As soon as he had his laptop, he raced over to the NCIS office, parking up on the street across the road he then jumped out of the car, carrying his bag and introducing himself to the cop on the gate, who had obviously been told her was expected and just waved him through, as he walked into the office. As soon as he did he heard an accented voice said his name as he stood up. “James?”

“Yeah, I remember you, I kind of saw you last year.” He’d shown up at one of their crime scenes to find Meredith, and that’s when he’d seen this guy, and the other one. As for the woman who had come through, he’d actually spoken to her when he’d visited in the summer. He’d surprised Meredith, and the other female agent had been the only person in the office at the time. He’d never actually spoken to the two male agents though. “You I remember from the summer, Percy, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Welcome back, Hugh Grant.” He couldn’t help but grin a little at that, because Meredith had told him about Percy calling him Hugh Grant from time to time. Out of everything her friends had called him over the years, that was probably the one of the politest. “That’s LaSalle.” Percy nodded and pointed to the guy. Truthfully though, he probably could have worked that all out, because he’d been told a lot about them all.

“Yeah, I guessed that. MB talks a lot about you guys.” He didn’t mind telling them that. It was probably not something that she would want her colleagues to know, but he thought it was cute. Thinking about her made him wonder exactly where she was. For some reason he’d just been assuming that she’d be in the main office, only her not being here was bothering him, and adding to the worry. “Where’s Meredith?”

“She’s upstairs with Pride.” LaSalle paused for a few moments, and somehow that made him even more worried. As he looked up he spotted the other man walking around upstairs, and though he couldn’t see Meredith he knew she was there. When he looked back down, both the agents in the room were giving him a look that told him they had a bombshell. “James… Her sister may be alive.”

“No, Emily… she’s dead see. She died in 2007.” He could remember the phonecall from Meredith’s mother. Olivia hadn’t known how to tell her daughter, and apparently, asking the boyfriend how to do it was the only idea she’d had. He hadn’t known how to tell her either though, and he’d spent the next day drunk. He remembered the month following Emily’s death. “I went to the funeral, I held Meredith’s hand.”

“You know about the pictures she’s been getting?” Percy asked, and James remembered the arguments they’d had about it. He’d wanted her to tell all of her team, she had wanted to play it cool. He had known that she’d told LaSalle and Sebastian, he’d wanted her to tell the rest. At least he’d known about them, and the website they’d sent her to, and almost everything else that had come because of them.

“The edited ones, yeah.” He wasn’t going to count out there being other photos. Especially with Meredith’s work, and everything else that went on in her life. He didn’t expect her to tell him everything, but he sometimes he wished that she would. Only because he wanted to know about her life, not because she had to tell him.

“She got a text a few days ago, and today there was a picture.” That was news to him. He’d been here for a week now, so she hadn’t told him all of it. Knowing Meredith though, she would have wanted to make sure he had a good time while he was here. She would have tried to avoid worrying him, because that was exactly the person she always had been. He watched as Sonja pulled a picture up and turned to him. “Here, is that Emily?”

He studied the photograph, trying to remember what his friend had looked like, but he really couldn’t. So instead he thought about Meredith and mentally reversed it. He knew every inch of Meredith’s body, so he only needed a few minutes of looking at this to be convinced it was indeed the other Brody twin. “Looks like Meredith if she grew out her hair, but… yeah that’s Emily.” He nodded, because he was absolutely certain. 

“You’re sure.” Percy asked, clearly not believing how confident James was feeling. He just knew though, that the woman in the photograph was Emily. She was the reason he’d met Meredith, the reason he settled in the US, pretty much the whole reason his life was the way it was. She had been one of his best friends, and she was missed. Finding out she was alive was something that was throwing him, and it was hard to believe, but he was absolutely certain.

“Absolutely… there is this thing Meredith has, I’m not saying what, but Emily had it too on the other side.” It seemed like the best idea to not say exactly what it was, because it was personal, and probably not something she would ever want her colleagues to know about. He thought it was beautiful, but both Meredith and Emily had been self-conscious about it. 

“Yeah, we had mirror twins explained to us this morning.” From the wry smile on both the agents’ faces, he gathered that Meredith had explained it in detail. He’d never needed it explaining, but he’d heard the spiel a few times now as they’d told others. By the time he and Meredith had had their first anniversary, he’d been able to join in with the lecture.

“The woman there, she has the thing. I’m sure that’s Emily.” He just wanted to keep repeating it, because it was really hard to believe. He then looked at LaSalle for a little bit of backup about how well he would know this to be true. “Frankly, LaSalle you can back me up on this one, I know how Meredith’s body looks better than she does. Guys always do, so I know.” LaSalle started nodding, and James didn’t miss the eyeroll that Percy gave them both.

“I’m gonna count this as a positive ID then, this is Emily Brody.” Percy nodded after a few seconds and looked briefly up to the glass room above them where they all knew Meredith was. With only one look at James she just nodded and started toward the stairs. “She’s up here, come on.” She motioned for him to follow her, and he just nodded, ready to see Meredith right now. As soon as he got up there he opened the door and just watched her for a moment.

“MB.” He said after a few seconds, making sure that she was OK. Even though he’d been stood there, and nobody had told him that anything was wrong with her, but he also knew that sometimes they didn’t always say everything. Now he’d seen her he knew that there was no need to panic, but he was still worried.

“James!” She shouted as soon as she heard him, then she turned properly, looking at him for a moment before she stood up and walked over to him slowly. “Did they tell you?” She asked. He could see the emotion in her face and knew that she was wondering what his opinion on all this was. She might not like it, but he knew she’d accept it from him.

“I saw the picture, it’s Emily.” He confirmed, stepping up to her and taking hold of her hand. Being the one to break this news to her was definitely strange, and he really wasn’t sure if he was doing it right, but he was doing all he could. This was not what he’d ever had to do before, but he was going to try. “She’s alive MB.”

“Are you sure it’s her J?” Meredith asked, and James was only half paying attention to Percy as she slipped off around him and back out the door. He just turned his whole attention to Meredith, keeping hold of her hand as she started wrapping her mind around what he was telling her.

“I’m certain.” He nodded, watching Meredith as she just stood there, staring off into the middle distance. It was clearly obvious that she wasn’t really happy about this, even though James thought that it was a good thing. What she needed right now was for him to be there, and to know that he wasn’t going to leave her. “I love you and I’m right here, OK. I’m not letting go.”

It was only then he realised there was someone else on the room, and only then because they came right up and put their hands on Meredith’s shoulder for a second. “You two stay up here, we’ll go make a start on the case.” James nodded, then looked at who he assumed was Pride as he left while Meredith stood in a mute shock, clearly still processing everything.

“I can’t believe it J.” She whispered after a few moments, and he just nodded and kissed her forehead. It seemed like she was so broken by this sudden change in her life, and he couldn’t imagine it would ever have been easy for her. At least this would be closed for her soon. The truth was he could barely believe it too.

“I know, it’s a dream, but she’s alive and your team will find her.” He was certain of that, and he was sure that they would do exactly what they were best at. Solving mysteries. “You’ll get your sister back.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up against his chest. He knew that she was feeling a little down when she wrapped her arms around him too. He couldn’t blame her, because he was slightly messed up by it, and Emily wasn’t his sister.


	3. Chapter 3

Pride left Brody alone with her sometime boyfriend, knowing that if she needed anyone right now it was James, not her team. The main difference being that James had known Emily. He looked at Brody’s desk and saw the USB memory pen and picked it up, guessing it was the photos he’d asked for. As soon as he looked at Percy and LaSalle though, it was clear that they weren’t as confident in who Pride had left Brody with. “You sure leaving them alone was a good idea?”

“They’ll see each other through for now, it’s the best we can do.” He knew that, it was what they’d had to do with LaSalle when Savannah had been killed almost a year earlier.  This situation must have been morale breaking. She was only just beginning to move past it. “Let Brody let it out. She just started mourning for her sister, getting over the fact that she died to begin with, and now she finds out she wasn’t dead at all.”

“Yeah that’d be enough to mess me up.” Percy nodded, and Pride could tell that all three of them were putting themselves in Brody’s place right now. It wasn’t somewhere that, really, any of them could truly understand, but they could try, and that was probably the next best thing. They couldn’t get too wrapped up in it though, they needed to solve it.

“So, we treat this like any other case. What do we know?” He decided to start it off like any other case with any other victim or missing person. They needed to start right at the beginning, and they needed to probe into Emily’s life more than anyone else probably had. That was likely to make their Brody uncomfortable, but she also would know it was necessary.

“Emily Anne Brody, born 6th November 1979 to Olivia and Paul Brody. Sixteen minutes after Meredith.” LaSalle started, and Pride noticed him taking a deep breath before saying the next part. It was always a little harder to say things like this when it was someone who was connected to them personally. Even when it was someone they never met. “Died August 27th, 2007, age 26, in a car crash just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She’d been living in Boston for a year.”

“Before that?” There seemed to be something about the Brody family that they didn’t seem to settle anywhere. He was sure there was a number of places she’d lived, and that would give them a larger pool of people who could be suspects  in this. 

“College in Michigan with Merri, then two years in California, a year in Colorado and a year in Virginia.” Pride wasn’t really very surprised by that, somehow he just couldn’t imagine Emily being any better at settling down than Meredith had been. 

“Sounds like her sister, doesn’t settle anywhere.” LaSalle’s comment was fair too, since it was exactly what Pride had been thinking. Though he was also pretty sure that Meredith was done running this time. He couldn’t blame the others for still not being as certain of that as he was. 

“Brody settled here, hasn’t she?” There was a question in Percy’s comment, and that was probably a sign that she was the newest agent, and the newest person on the team. Most of the others wouldn’t need to ask this, but he understood.

“It’s only been two years, too early to say. She was in DC for a year, then Chicago for three, then Saint Paul and Cedar Rapids for two apiece. That’s since she finished her training.” How did LaSalle remember all that. Even he couldn’t remember all of the places that Brody had been stationed, though that didn’t count the  _ Moultrie _ , or all the places she’d only spent a few weeks. 

It was clear that Percy wasn’t even sure how LaSalle did that, which given how much time they spent together maybe wasn’t too surprising. Brody had a point, Percy was absolutely LaSalle’s work wife, and so her being surprised by something was a big thing. “How do you even remember that?” 

“Focus. We’re not here about Brody, we’re here about Emily.” It was worth reminding them that Meredith Brody wasn’t the focus of this investigation, but that she was just on the side of it. They needed to be focusing on Emily, and finding her so that they could start moving this family on, for their friend. “So let’s focus on Emily.”

“Alright, moving on. She was a teacher, art, at a Boston high school.” Percy started, pulling the file up on the plasma and standing in her usual spot in front of it, they were all reading it through, and he knew they were all looking through to see whether there was any explanation, any investigation, or any obvious red flags in the file. “There was no investigation into the crash past the basics.”

“It looked cut and dry. Obvious RTC.” LaSalle pointed to that section of the file on the screen. The car had been registered to Emily, all the ID in the car was Emily’s. The other driver was drunk, their car was almost totalled. There was no doubt that the accident had happened, but clearly something had been switched out.

“We’re going to need to exhume Emily.” That wasn’t something that he said easily. Because if they were wrong, and it was Emily, all exhuming her would do would be cause more pain and suffering. They needed to prove it though, and all that could be done there was to exhume her and get an anthropologist to prove exactly who was in the grave. Was it Emily, or someone else.

“Will Mamma Brody sign off on that?” LaSalle asked, and that was a food question. It would be easier getting her parents to sign off than getting a court order for it. Maybe there was a way they could convince Olivia Brody that it was necessary without requiring Meredith to take the lead, but there was a fair to even chance that she would need to hear from her daughter. Then came the next urgent question. “Where was she buried anyway?”

“In our hometown, Battle Creek, Michigan.” Came a voice from behind them, and all three turned to the stairs where Brody was stepping down. Pride noticed that she was still holding on to James’ hand pretty tightly, but it was obvious that she’d decided that she needed to keep going, and help out as much as she could.

“B should you be here?” Percy turned and stepped toward her, and while Pride noticed her hand tightening slightly in James’, he knew that she was going to try and push through it. He had every faith in her that she’d be able to as well, because she was stubborn enough to do just that.

“I know I can’t take lead, but I should try and help, and James can schmooze my mother.” She smiled a little, squeezing James’ hand again and smiled. That was something, at least she seemed to be managing to make plans as to how to solve this case. She also seemed a little proud of James’ ability to control her mother. “He was always good at that.”

“I like your mum, and she likes me.” James grinned and nudged Brody softly, and she rolled her eyes and moved away from him to read the screen. Pride had to admit that he was happy to see her interacting with someone she hadn’t met through work. It was really good to see how much James actually lightened Brody up, even in this situation. 

Pride thought that it was just about time he brought the attention, again, to the facts of the case. That was the important thing for all of them to focus on. “Well, you two should work on getting her down here. She’ll need to see the evidence before she let’s us do anything, I know that.” He remembered Olivia Brody, he doubted that he’d ever actually forget the woman. Not that he’d ever say it to her face, but it was obvious where Meredith got most of her personality from.

“James, you’re certain it’s Emily.” Meredith burst out with suddenly and turned back toward James. For a second Pride worried the other man would wilt under Brody’s stare, then he remembered that this man had once managed to propose to her, so he must have even made of sterner stuff that was maybe obvious to the naked eye.

“Yeah. MB come here.” He motioned to her, and Brody took a few steps toward him before she stopped in her tracks and glared. Clearly she’d thought over what could be happening here, and her realisation had caused her to rethink walking back over to the other side of the office.

“J you better not.” She muttered, and everyone in the room felt the little threat in Brody’s voice. None of them knew what James was just about to try and demonstrate, but since they also didn’t want to push Brody to the point where she’d have to murder her ex-fiance, nobody asked either.

“Alright, fine. I won’t. But yeah I’m certain.” He really did sound completely certain. As if there was never a doubt in his mind, and rightfully there probably shouldn’t have been. He’d apparently explained his reasoning well to Percy and LaSalle once already. That was enough for him. Just as they were all about to turn back to the screen James spoke again, clearly deciding he should go do what he was good at doing. “Shall I go call your mum, get her here?”

“Thank you James.” Pride nodded, waving an arm in the direction of the courtyard. That was where almost everyone made their calls, and given that this one was probably more personal than some, it was the best place. As soon as James was out of earshot he turned back to his agents and nodded. “Alright, so where are we now?”

“Facing the fact that my sister probably isn’t dead.” Brody said quietly, causing everyone to turn and face her again. She wasn’t looking at the screen, or anywhere but her desk. On her computer screen there was a photo showing. Pride had loaded it there to keep it close to hand and had then forgotten about it. It showed Brody and James with Emily and another man, someone Pride didn’t know, but he’d be sure to ask about. “She’s not dead and everything I’ve been through for the last decade was for nothing.

“Meredith.” He scolded softly. That wasn’t the way she should be thinking, and he would be sure that he reminded her that everyone was there to help her through this. But that wasn’t a conversation to have with an audience, and he was sure the other two could find something to do while he spoke with Brody. ”Give us the room.”

“Sure King. We’ll find your sister, Brody.” LaSalle muttered to Brody as he walked past her in the direction of the kitchen, clapping her lightly on the shoulder. It did please Pride to see how quickly his team would drop everything to support each other, he’d picked good agents there.

“You heard him, right. We’re all in this to find Emily. Even James dropped everything to be here and help.” Pride had only known James was in town through Loretta, but he knew from previous conversations with Brody that sticking around had never been his strong point. But here he was, supporting Brody every step of the way. It hurt, in a way, that she didn’t need him as her support. But James was clearly still in love with her, and from what Pride could tell the feeling was mutual. That all should be enough to pick Brody up. “So you can be pessimistic all you want but we are going to keep going anyway.”

“I know.” She said, then sank into one of the armchairs and covered her face. After a second he crouched down in front of her, not wanting to loom over her while she worked up the nerve to tell him what was on her mind. He just stayed silent, knowing she’d tell him eventually. “I daren’t hope because if I do and this is all some wild goose chase I’ll have to live through it all again.”

“You’re not alone this time Meredith, you have all of us. Believe me, we’re not going anywhere.” He smiled and thought about the fact that everyone would drop what they were doing to help this case. To help her. She was one of them. “LaSalle, Percy, Patton, Sebastian, Loretta, me and from what I can see, James are all here. We’ll work this out.”

“What if it can’t be worked out?” It was an almost childlike question, and the slight quavering of her voice was enough to really sell that that was where her emotions were. Not that it made answering her question any easier.

“Then we’ll help you to heal.” He ended up saying honestly, because if this went badly that was all anyone was going to be able to do. He hated that this was what they were having to do now, but it was what it was, and Brody could get something that was missing back. 


	4. Chapter 4

For the last five hours Brody had known that one topic was going to be high on the agenda when she picked her mother up. Even though James had told Olivia why she was needed in New Orleans, Brody knew that the fact James had made a reappearance would be the main topic. Mostly because no matter the situation, Meredith’s love life was more the focus… until something more urgent came up. “I seem to remember you saying you were never going to get back together with James.” Olivia started almost as soon as they got into the car, and that was just the direction she wanted this to go.

“Times change.” Brody commented, not really sure how to actually explain the true reason she had let James back into her life. She didn’t actually think that her mom would react all that well to ‘a witness on a case told me to follow my heart’ as a reason for making a huge life choice. It may be true, but it didn’t sound good to someone as hyper-analytical as Olivia Brody.

“I know that, it was a surprise enough when you said you were seeing each other occasionally but now...” As Brody remembered it, that wasn’t at all she had been when she mentioned that James was back on the scene. She’d been rather happy, and had already made it clear that she hoped there would be another engagement before long. Maybe it was a desire for grandchildren, but something was certainly making Olivia want to rush her daughter through.

“We’re not getting married mom.” Brody shook her head and frowned just a little. She almost couldn’t believe that she was having to say this, but she was, and that was annoying. At least for now. If they ever chose to get married again the fact her mother was planning for it would probably be a good thing.

“You say that now, but I remember how you two always were with each other.” OK, there was possibly a bit of truth with that. They had always been accused of being destined to be married to one another. Maybe that was true, but she still didn’t appreciate feeling like she was being pushed toward him. “I’m glad James is back Merri, he’s a good match for you.”

“I remember you always saying that, even when we were having problems.” It had always seemed like her mom had wanted them to be together more than anyone else, including the two of them. She had always liked James though, and Brody couldn’t remember another boyfriend that Olivia had liked.

“A lot of your problems were that you were too similar.” That was also an observation that Meredith had come to herself. Sure it felt nice to have some validation in the fact that her mother agreed with her, but it wasn’t the same, really, as having a way to solve that before it all began. “Now… What’s this about your sister?” Why did the fact that Olivia always referred to her as ‘your sister’ bother Meredith so badly?

“She has a name, mom. Emily.” She shot across the car to her mother. She’d tried to directly confront her on this before, and it had never gotten her anywhere. But this time there was a chance that Emily was still alive, and they would be meeting her again soon. How would she feel knowing her mother hadn’t said her name once in almost 9 years? It would hurt, surely. 

“I know I gave it to her. But… it hurts, Merri.” Olivia’s voice caught in her throat, and Brody felt a little sorry for pushing something that clearly would be best to be left alone. After a few moments, Olivia had pulled herself together again enough to continue talking with her other daughter, something Brody was thankful about. “What happened?”

“We believe she’s alive.” Brody began knowing that was the easiest way to explain the current situation. Going into detail in their current position wasn't possible, but she would explain as much as she could, because that was the least her mother deserved. 

It seemed Olivia jumped on the classification of ‘we’ and wondered exactly who that was. Not that it was classified or even private. It just meant she'd have to explain how they had come to depend on James. “Who exactly are ‘we’?” 

“James is convinced and… he’s persuasive.” That was an understatement, really. If James had been a salesman the world would have parted with most of it's money. Which actually made her glad that he had decided that journalism was his lifetime calling, she didn’t want to imagine him swindling people because he’d be good at it.

“Did he find her?” Olivia asked, clearly trying to piece it all together in her mind. The same way Meredith had been since she had found out about all of this. Most of the time it was too fluid for her to focus on straightening it all out, but she was getting there, and this whole situation was beginning to make some sense to her. 

“No, he was brought in on it.” She had to admit, maybe it would make more sense if James had found something out about Emily and brought it to them. The fact that Pride had just called James to come and sit with her because she’d sort of destructed for a moment and he was there to help her. “You remember I told you about those pictures and that website last time you were in town?”

“I remember.” Olivia nodded, and it was good to know that even though she’d dismissed what Brody was thinking back then, Olivia had paid attention. It still always surprised Brody a little when that happened, because she wanted to please her mother and that had never been something she was good at. That had always been Emily’s area of expertise.

“I got a text message a few days ago, stating that Emily was alive. Then yesterday… I got a picture sent to the office of a woman almost identical to me.” She laid it all out in more detail, because she hoped that would convince Olivia that they had brought her down to New Orleans because they were taking this seriously. “James IDed her as Emily.”

“How would James know better than you?” That was one of the first things Brody had wondered too. But she also knew that he wouldn’t be so adamant if he wasn’t certain. She hadn’t asked him though, but she had asked Percy quietly after a bit, and that had made far more sense to her than anything else had done. 

“Something about guys knowing the way their girlfriends look better, and me and Emily being mirrors.” When they were young, she and Emily had liked to try and confuse their parents, but they’d always known. Other people had no idea, but their parents always knew. “He explained it to Sonja, she badly explained it to me.” That was the problem really, Sonja was not good at explaining things sometimes, and that was hilarious to Brody.

“I’d like to see this picture.” Olivia asked, looking over at Meredith for a moment. For some reason it affected her slightly more knowing that Olivia had remembered Brody’s concerns the last time she’d come to town. That was something, and it did make her feel a little more like she could talk about this.

“That’s why I’m taking you to the office.” Brody replied, knowing that that was the best thing to do. They could leave the bags in the car and eventually Olivia could unpack at Brody’s place, but right now going to the office seemed like the plan, and she laughed a little thinking about what would happen next. “James is there too, you two can catch up and make me feel inadequate all over again.” She saw Olivia’s smile at that too, and that was a good memory for all of them.

There was something showing in Olivia’s face that made Brody worry for just a moment, and that made her want to freeze, but she was driving and it would have been a bad idea. “Meredith. That boy has loved you as long as you’ve known him. Don’t throw that away.” Olivia’s smile made Brody even more uncomfortable, and she really just wanted them to focus on the case.

“Can we focus on Emmie, not my love life, mom?” She just really wanted to push it on, and that was what she needed to do. Yes there was always going to be interest in her love life from her family, but right now that surely wasn’t the most pressing thing. She knew that, really, her mom just wanted details. 

“OK, I can take a hint.” Olivia replied after a few seconds, going back to looking out the window as they pulled into the city, and within a few minutes they would be there. As she continued driving she heard one of the softest and quietest things she’d ever heard her mother say. “I just want you to be happy, Meredith.”

“I am happy, really.” She smiled and looked over, deciding to give in and tell her exactly what was happening with her personal life. “The truth is… James was here because it was a year this week since we started things up again.” The fact that it had already been a year since James had shown up on her crime scene seemed weird, but it was true, and that has started her to this point. “So we’re doing OK. Or we were, until all this brought up all the bad memories of how we imploded” Nothing had been said, but she knew they were both thinking about it. 

“That was the past, look forward.” Olivia smiled and squeezed her hand as they parked up, and Merri slid out of her seat, glad to see that James car was still on the street where he’d left it earlier. Even though she was now feeling unsure of everything, having James there was helping her cope. She decided against prolonging the conversation, and instead just walked into the office, allowing her mother to follow her. “So, you’re all working on my daughter’s disappearance?” Brody heard behind her, and had to bite her tongue as she heard another instance of avoidance. She rolled her eyes at Pride as she walked past him, and knew her friend would catch it before he turned his attention to her mother.

“Hello again, Olivia, we’re all working to find Emily.” Pride laughed gently, probably trying to diffuse the tension that Brody had brought with her. It did help, a little, to hear her friend using Emily’s given name. At least someone was addressing her. He stepped forward holding his hand out to shake Olivia’s the way he always did.

“Hi Dwayne, Patton, Christopher, Sonja.” Olivia spoke to each of the agents and smiled widely. It was nice that they’d all clearly made a favourable impression on her, because if they hadn’t Brody was certain that Olivia would have long since forgotten all of their names.

“Hey mamma B.” LaSalle and Percy replied together and smiled. Then they looked at Brody with a bigger grin, and she had to resist the impulse to throw something at them both. That probably was not the healthiest of automatic reactions, but it was all she had.

“Am I missing something?” Brody smiled as she heard it being shouted through, and she turned just in time to see her former-fiance-turned-current-boyfriend coming through the kitchen arch and just freezing as he saw her mother.

Olivia had turned at the same moment, and broke into a much wider smile. It was likely obvious to everyone around that Olivia truly did adore her former prospective son-in-law, and Brody knew that the feeling was secretly mutual. She’d never had the awkward ‘mother-in-law’ situations with James, because they’d just genuinely gotten along well. “James.” 

“Hey Mrs. B.” James smiled and walked over, giving her the kind of hug he’d always reserved for making sure she was on his side before they even start talking. The thing that annoyed Brody the most was that it always worked. Not that she could really complain, as he did it to her as well, and it still worked. “I’m glad I got chance to see you this time I was in the States.”

“We need to have words before all this is over.” Olivia said quietly to James, but not so quietly that Brody couldn’t hear it, and she once again just rolled her eyes as she felt her hand being picked up again. She then looked back to her mother and watched as she turned to one of the plasma screens on the wall. “OK, show me this evidence.”

“Brody, we’ll leave this to you, shout if you need us.” Pride patted her shoulders as he passed her, motioning for Percy, LaSalle and Patton to follow him. When James started to go too Brody was glad she’d taken his hand again, as it meant that she could pull him back and keep him stood there.

“Thanks Pride. This is the photo I was sent.” She hit the remote control, and the picture blew up on the plasma screen over their head. Brody couldn’t look at it again, so she decided to focus on her mother instead. Trying to focus on that rather than the picture again. “James is certain it’s Emily.” She decided to give that information, and she felt James’ hand tighten around hers.

“It is.” Olivia said, seemingly completely convinced that the photograph was of her younger daughter. Brody was not at all able to wrap her head around it. How were they both so certain.

“How can you possibly know that?” Brody argued. Because she wasn’t believing that her mother had just completely agreed with James, and seemed absolutely certain that the woman in the photograph was Emily.

“I’m her mother, call it intuition.” Olivia smiled at her, nodding at them with that grin she wore when she knew she was right. “It’s how I confirmed it was you in that video too. You’re my daughters, and I know you both.” Brody had to concede that fact. She knew that her mother had seen the video of her a few years ago, that was how NCIS had confirmed that she was in fact who they claimed. If Olivia had known Meredith, then it was fair to accept that she knew Emily too. This was Emily, and she couldn’t avoid that any longer.


	5. Chapter 5

Pride had clearly gotten fed up of the Brody family being underfoot at the office, and really Brody couldn’t blame him. They were very much struggling to work out what this would mean for them, and that had made it hard for even her to focus on her work. Brody had driven her mother home, while James had followed along in his car. As soon as they got in, Olivia took her bag up to the spare bedroom, leaving Brody and James alone in the lounge for a few minutes. “Meredith, are you sure her staying here is a good idea?” James asked with a large amount of trepidation, and that just made Brody laugh a little. For the first time in a long time, she was certain about her mom being there.

“There was no time for a hotel and I have a spare bedroom.” She’d even made it up, though that had been a few days earlier when she hadn’t been sure where James was going to sleep. That bed hadn’t been needed, as once they were together there had never been a question of where James was sleeping. Maybe that was something to do with James’ issue. He had always been a little uncomfortable with the idea of people knowing they were sleeping together. “J we were engaged for four years she knows we share a bed.”

“That was not at all my issue.” He groaned softly as he looked at her, then pointed to a scar on his head. She tried to think what that meant, and after a few seconds of her saying nothing James looked at her and looked a little annoyed at her. “Last time I stayed somewhere with both of you I ended up being knocked unconscious by a plate.” 

“That was nothing.” She laughed a little, the particulars of that day coming back to her as she thought about it. It had been a very interesting day, and she wasn’t sure why James was complaining too much about it. It had been a long time ago and she wasn’t even sure she remembered why they’d been arguing.

“It was a solid plate, Meredith. I had a concussion.” James sounded even less impressed than she’d expected, and that just made her snort again. She just couldn’t help it, because the way he was bitching about it was hilarious. It hadn’t been funny at the time, but it was now looking back on it.

“You weren’t permanently damaged and, either way, I didn’t throw it.” That was also true. Olivia had just thrown whatever she was holding. It hadn’t even really been at Meredith. The whole situation had been a series of unfortunate events that had led to James getting hit in the head with a plate.

“No. It was thrown  _ at you _ . Hence my concern.” It hadn’t technically even been thrown at her It had just been thrown. That was the way this had always gone in their lives. It was something that Brody had done at one time in her life, but she’d managed to train herself out of it after a while. The last she ever wanted to be was like her mother.

“She didn’t mean to throw it at me she just let go with force in my general direction and you happened to get in the way.” She couldn’t help but burst out laughing more, causing James to glare at her again, which just made her laugh harder. “OK, fine. I’ll make sure that when I annoy her it’s only when you’re not in range.”

“Thank you, that’s all I’m asking.” He tried to sound like that was exactly what he’d been asking, but she wasn’t really fooled, and she doubted that he really expected her to be. He probably just expected her to play along to a certain point. she could do that, and she just smirked as she walked up close to him and rested her arms on his shoulders.

“You’re an easy guy to please sometimes aren’t you?” She teased, and instead of answering James pulled her close to him and kissed her hard. She enjoyed the fact that he knew the best way to take her mind off everything that was going on right now. So she just held on to James for a few minutes trying to forget.

She had no idea how much time had passed when she heard the sound of disapproval from the corner of the room that told her Olivia had come down the stairs. “You two should put each other down in public.” She commented dryly as she walked through to the kitchen area on one side of the house, 

“We’re not in public. We’re in my living room. Where I like to… live.” Brody edited her original thought on that, deciding it was something that her mother probably didn’t need to hear, and probably also didn’t want to know. James smirked a little though and lifted him thumb to his mouth biting on it gently. He knew what she’d been going to say, and she just shot a glare at him as her mother walked around the room. 

“Meredith you really need better furniture.” Olivia said motioning first to her beat up writing cabinet, then to the centrepiece of her living room, her very beat up old sofa. She’d had that sofa since college and she had no intention of replacing it. It just needed covering a little now.

“You do have an ugly arse sofa.” James smirked even wider, and for a second Brody had to fight an urge to remind him exactly why she had to cover her sofa with sheets. It included James and his friend, too much tequila and a tin of matte paint. She still couldn’t wash it all out, no matter how many times she’d tried. She was sure it would have been a romantic gesture in certain circumstances, but she didn’t know which ones.

“Shut up. My decor is fine.” She snapped at them both, just not at all in the mood for either of them to try and critique her decorating style. “I will think about replacing the blankets. Maybe we should go out to dinner, then we can talk about all of this.”

“All of what dear?” Olivia was the first one to reply to that idea, and clearly she wasn’t following what Merri was thinking, but really what else did they have to think about at the moment. The situation with Emily was surely it.

“Yeah, all of what dear?” James parroted, and it took all of her self control not to smack him in the face. Sometimes he knew she was getting annoyed with him, and would purposefully try to make it far worse. Mostly because he knew it would end up with them arguing, and generally spending time in bed when they were alone again.

“I will kick you in the ass, J, Don’t think I won’t.” She threatened, and while she often threatened him, normally it wasn’t only the ass she would threaten to kick though. She really hoped he would take that as a hint that maybe pushing this tonight was not a good idea.

“I’ll probably enjoy it too.” James commented quietly, almost into Brody’s ear and then pulled back smiling and looking over at her mother. How did that may do that, switch from sexy to civil in a microsecond. “If we’re going out, I vote that Mrs B pays since she missed me so much.” He was going to play on the fact her mother had missed him for the whole night, she could tell.

“Depends on what you order, James. I’ll consider it.” She smiled then pulled her Jacket on. That at least told Brody that her mom had agreed that going out was probably for the best, and she was glad of that, as she wasn’t certain that she actually had any food in her cupboard. “How about you show us the city Meredith.”

“Alright, we’ll walk to my favourite place.” At least that place was close. Brody couldn’t seem to help feeling absolutely exhausted, and she wondered if this was what an emotional breakdown felt like, not that she’d know. That was when she remembered James and the bartender had argued about something last time they were here. “You are not allowed to argue with the bartender this time.” She threatened James and glared.

“If he’s stopped supporting Salford Devils I’ll consider not arguing with him.” Was the only answer she got back and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes. that meant that as soon as he saw this guys James was gonna go and argue about whatever it was they didn't agree on, mostly Brody had gotten that it was some British sport.

“It’s a British thing.” Brody said to the look on her mother’s face and shrugged. She couldn’t really explain it, and she was absolutely certain that even if she could, Olivia really wouldn’t care. 

After a short walk, and an almost silent meal, James went to argue with his bar buddy, leaving Olivia and Brody alone to talk. Brody understood what he was trying to do, but she wasn’t sure she knew how to do it. As they sat in silence she wondered if she should broach the elephant in the room, but after a few minutes Olivia beat her to it. “How do you feel about your sister being alive, Merri?”

“Mom can we just use her name. Please, God, just call her Emily, for the sake of this conversation. Use her name.” It was just too much, and Meredith couldn’t do it. She needed to use Emily’s name. She couldn’t just call her ‘my sister’, she needed to personalise her. She needed to use her name.

“Fine. Meredith… How do you feel about Emily being alive?” That was better. Just hearing the name put Brody at ease and she felt more like she was ready to face this. She hated that she wasn’t entirely certain how she felt, and that she’d need to say that.

“Honestly?” She asked, because she knew that sometimes people liked being lied to in these situations, but when her mother nodded a little and motioned her head for Brody to continue she took a breath and thought how best to phrase it. “I’m torn about it.”

“Tell me?” Olivia prompted again. Clearly trying to push on, and that normally would have worked, but not today, and Brody didn’t even know why. Instead she needed to work through her mental process and tell herself that speaking honestly with her mother was something that she could do.

“I’ve missed her every single second of the last 9 years, and having her back would be amazing but…” That was where the first pause came. It wasn’t easy to admit that there was even a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence, but there was. It was all her experience too.“I keep flashing back to that month with the guy… and remembering exactly what he did to me while I was there… and imagining that for 9 years. She’s not going to be our Emily anymore.”

“Have you even spoken to anyone about your experience?” Olive asked, and Brody remembered that her mother knew exactly what she’d been through. That actually didn’t make her feel any more confident, but it reminded her that she wasn’t alone. Even though she hadn’t spoken about it in detail to her.

“Other than the debriefing committee? One person, and I’m really not up for discussing it again.” She nodded toward the bar, hoping that Olivia would understand, that James was the only person that she’d been able to talk about it with. After an experience James had once had, he knew what it was like to be in that situation, and that was why she’d trusted him. She loved her mother, but she wouldn’t know how it felt. But that meant that Brody was curious about how her mother felt about this. “How about you? How do you feel about finding out that Emily is alive?”

“I’ll have both my daughters back, Merri. Even if Emily isn’t the same as she was, she’s alive.” That was what she really should have been focusing on, but she didn’t think she could. She just wanted  _ her _ Emily back. But that wasn’t going to happen.

“What if we never get our Emily back?” She had to ask, because the probability of getting her sister back as she remembered her wasn’t high. In fact it was impossible. Everyone changed in 9 years, even without the stress that Emily would have been under.

“Then we learn about the new Emily. It will be OK. We’ll work it out.” That was one of the most optimistic things that Brody could remember hearing Olivia Brody say. That was enough to give her some new confidence, and by the time James came back to the table and kissed her cheek. She felt a little more like this was a good thing.


	6. Chapter 6

It seemed like this situation had raced around their team, and by the time he’d told Loretta the night before she’d already heard from Sebastian. Pride knew that Loretta had had plans to go and check on the Brody clan last night. Living next door was certainly helpful in that regard. But he also knew that the conjecture that would be happening there would not be enough for his friend, and he had more up-to-date information than Brody or her family. “So what’s going on?”

“Brody’s father travelled up to Michigan last night. They exhumed Emily this morning.” He’d got the call when the exhumation had begun a little after 8, soon as Paul Brody had managed to make it up there to observe. This was something that Pride couldn’t imagine, watching someone dig up the remains of who you believed to be a loved one. He’d never needed to face that, and he hoped he never would. Being at exhumations of people he didn’t know we're bad enough. “We’re waiting on the opinion of the anthropologist.” He continued explaining, though that was something he wasn’t entirely sure about.

“You got an anthropologist on this?” Loretta asked, clearly either not sure about that, or not certain how he’d convinced an anthropologist to sign on to a closed case. How he wished he could take the credit for that, but he couldn’t. Pride hadn’t realised, at all, exactly how far Brody’s sphere of influence extended. But she’d barely even had to make two phone calls to put this in motion.

“Brody and her momma, they know some big shot who works with the FBI who agreed to do the consultation for them.” He wasn’t sure which one of them had all the influence at the FBI, he knew that Merri had friends who worked at Quantico, but who knew exactly what a senior manager at DARPA had in her pocket. 

“That makes sense.” Loretta agreed with a smirk. Clearly she hadn’t really thought he’d manage it either. He decided against commenting on that. After a few seconds of silence she looked at him and tilted her head to the side. “What are you thinking?” She asked, and he had to find a way to tell her what was going through her mind. Mostly, until that moment, it had been about him not buying it, now it was him being skeptical of the photo.

“Olivia and James both seemed convinced.” Was what he went with, he wasn’t sure how much James could be positive, he’d seen pictures of Meredith and Emily together and on the surface they looked completely different, he understood that things changed when people got older though, and maybe both James and Olivia knew things and saw things he didn’t even know existed.

“Merri wasn’t though.” Loretta pointed out, and while that had entered his thought process for a while, he’d soon realised that he should take Brody’s opinions with a pinch of salt right now. While she’d often thought there was more to Emily’s death, she’d also rejected a great many credible theories on her way to where she was now. She had her thoughts on it, and things that didn’t match up weren’t things she considered.

“Loretta, you know as well as I do that Meredith is blind to many facets of her sister’s death. Anything that doesn’t fit with her personal narrative she ignores.” He explained, and he knew that Loretta knew as well as he did. Brody spoke to them both, probably more than she did most other people in her life. That gave them both an insight that Brody didn’t have herself. “I’m not sure I’d trust her judgement in this area.”

“You don’t think she might have the right thought on it?” That was a leading question, and he knew it. Loretta had been clever in how she’d worded it though, and made certain that it wouldn’t be immediately seen as a question. He saw through it though.

Was there a possibility Brody was still right, yes. Did he think she wasn’t believing through any rational reasoning, no. That was the main reason he was discounting her thoughts on this. Normally he trusted her with everything, and she was one of the best agents he had, but on this subject, he didn’t, so he wasn’t taking anything on this case as proof. “No. I’m leaving my thoughts until I have them.”

“Really? you don’t already have opinions?” That was yet another loaded question, because she knew he did. All of them were personal though, and not one of them was actionable. Thinking about them was the last thing that he would do, because he didn’t want to prejudice his objectivity. They were all going to depend on that over the coming days, especially if he let Brody back into the investigation like he’d been planning.

“My main opinion is that I hope this doesn’t hurt anyone too much, Brody included. The photo is our only lead.” He did that that that one photo was the only lead they had on a potential missing person. Nothing else. The case file on Emily’s accident was one of the thinnest he’d seen, even for something that looked completely cut and dry. He then remembered what she’d been like when she’d left the office, and knew Loretta had seen her after that. “How was she doing last night?”

“I only stopped in for a moment to collect the boys back.” Loretta’s boys seemed to enjoy spending time with Brody as well, especially if Loretta was working late and Brody wasn’t. It was something that both the kids had mentioned to him on more than one occasion. After a minute of Pride’s staring Loretta gave him more the answer he wanted. “She was curled up with James on the sofa, her mother was busy fussing over the boys.” 

“I bet they loved that.” He laughed for a second, knowing that when he was their age he would have absolutely loved to have people fussing over him. Somehow it didn’t surprise him that Olivia Brody would have found any excuse to be distracted from what was going on. He also wasn’t surprised that Brody herself had taken to denying it, hiding away with James. Which probably meant the boys had helped more than they knew.

“They are teenage boys, they love anyone that feeds them and gives them attention.” Loretta laughed, and Pride was at least gratified to know that he was right on that point. Then as he watched Loretta he realised that while she had poked and prodded for what he was thinking about this case, she hadn’t actually offered up any opinions of her own.

“What do you think about all this?” He decided it was his turn to poke and prod, it was what he was supposed to do as an agent. Plus Loretta was one of the most intelligent people he’d ever met, and he was absolutely certain that if anyone had insight into this case it would be their ME. Pride just sat and waited as his friend considered what she was going to say carefully, just as she always did.

“I think there have been unasked and unanswered questions about Emily Brody for many years. It’s about time someone asked them, and got the answers.” That was a very measured answer, and Pride had to think about that for a few seconds before he realised what she was saying. Despite all of the doubts he knew Brody had, clearly she’d never been able to ask a lot of the questions that would now need answering. But even taking that into consideration, was it a good reason for what Loretta was suggesting.

“You think I should do that?” He decided to just ask straight out. If that was what she was hinting at, then he could really think about it, while if it wasn’t he could discard the similarities. At least until he got the results. But the truth was, whatever was happening here, it wasn’t going to be as clear cut as he wanted it to be. 

Loretta was giving him one of the looks she gave that told him she would have smacked him if she could have gotten herself close enough. “Someone needs to get closure for Merri, she’ll never get it just for herself.” OK, she had a point there. Closure was something that the whole family needed, and he knew that Loretta was in a groove. She clearly had more to say and he was ready to listen.“And for Emily. Dead or alive that girl deserves justice, and we should be the ones to give it to her. Merri is family, that makes Emily family too.”

“You always know just what to say. Michigan office.” He said as his phone started to vibrate in his hand. He decided that in a case like the one they were working that he didn’t need to continue with such social niceties as a greeting. “I have our ME stood with us. What have you found?” He prompted immediately, and the only response he got for a moment was an impatient tutting noise.

“Hello again, Agent Pride, Dr. Wendell Holmfirth the Anthropologist.” Of course that’s who it was. While there would certainly be agents involved, they wouldn’t be calling him with the results. So another introduction was certainly unnecessary. Not that that seemed to stop the scientist, maybe he just enjoyed formality.

“And, your results doctor?” Loretta could clearly see that Pride was getting annoyed, and it was often best that someone else take over when that happen. It was good for him that everyone knew his signs, as it meant they’d never get to the point where he was punching sailors in the face again.

“I can confirm that these remains are not those of Emily Anne Brody, but of a middle-aged african american male.” That pronouncement seemed to be made with a great deal of certainty, and for a moment Pride didn’t know if he should believe it. He knew that no specialist would be so confident if there was even an inch of doubt. “A small one, but still a male.”

“So 100% not Emily?” He asked, wanting to know the absolute confirmation, totally certain that it wasn’t Emily Brody. That was going to be an interesting conversation, and he’d have to go to them. He didn’t want Brody to come in today, she could join the investigation tomorrow. 

“There is no chance.” The doctor confirmed again, and a quick look at Loretta told him that she was taking it in as well as he was. They would all need to process this for just a moment. “There will be DNA confirmation in a few days but...” The doctor trailed off the same way that Sebastian did when he’d already given the answer, and Pride wondered if that was something they taught all forensic scientists.

“You give me your professional opinion. Thanks.” He thought that that was something that he should do. Though he knew that the doctor had only done it because he owed either Olivia or Meredith a favour, but it was something, and they now knew for certain.

“No problem, we’re going to take over identifying this victim, we’ll keep you in the loop.” He was grateful that Michigan were taking the point on that, he couldn’t afford to split his team up right now, especially as he was going to have to keep Brody on a short leash. None of them could afford for her to fly off. At least they knew for certain now.

“Thanks.” He said again and hung up, then just stared at his phone for a moment. Pride was normally the kind of man who would stand and listen. He wouldn’t jump to conclusions, but now it seemed like he should have followed his gut. The gut that had told him Brody was right all along.

Loretta seemed to have frozen, and while she’d been pushing for them investigating, she’d clearly not actually thought that it wouldn’t be Emily. That made sense in a way too, but she should have understood the conclusion without needing to ask her next question. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“Emily Brody is probably alive, and we need to find her.” There was no other acceptable outcome to this case, he was certain of that. Because he wasn’t sure that Brody would ever stop if they didn’t. They all wanted to help their friend, so they would do what was needed. Now though they just needed to make the preparations for the truth on this, and he needed to go and tell the family.


	7. Chapter 7

James had known the moment he saw Meredith’s boss he knew that something had broken out in the investigation. Given he knew that this morning the customary investigations into Emily’s remains would have happened. By now, Pride would know if it was his friend in the casket. Judging by the look on his face, the news was simultaneously good and bad. James had been the one to get up to the door, and he decided that announcing who it was would give Meredith a moment to sit up and try to look a little more put together. “Agent Pride?”

“Is everyone here?” Pride asked, and for a second James wondered if it would actually matter to him if they weren’t all there. If Meredith had been asleep or if Olivia had gone for a walk. He didn’t know for certain, but he was pretty sure that that wouldn’t have changed a single thing about this. It would have just made it a little longer they’d have to wait for answers to the questions they wanted to know, so it wasn’t worth testing his theory.

“Yeah, come in.” He then opened the door and stepped back fully, once he’d shut the door he went back to the seat on the sofa beside Meredith. She didn’t go back to the position she’d been in before, while they’d just been talking about James’ recent assignments, but she did take hold of his hand again.

“It wasn’t Emily.” Pride ended up saying simply as soon as he was settled on a chair he brought over from the table. It wasn’t really a surprise to James, but he could the shock in Olivia’s face, and he felt how Meredith had momentarily stiffened. It was obvious they hadn’t actually expected for it to be Emily.

“You’re certain?” Olivia was the first to get her wits back, while James could feel the Merri wasn’t even sure probably where she was or what was happening to her right now. He was certain that she’d come back to herself before too long, but she was shocked right now, and he understood that.

“You hired the anthropologist, and he’s 100% certain, the person you buried wasn’t Emily.” Pride seemed to know exactly what to say, and that made all of this a little easier to deal with. If the anthropologist was certain that it wasn’t Emily then it wasn’t. That seemed to be cut and dried, then Pride looked directly at Meredith with his next comment. “The chances are it was a transient.”

“Like that one of Baitfish’s victims.” They were the first words out of Meredith’s mouth and James realised that was probably why he’d said that. He’d known it would get some kind of response out of her. James knew about Baitfish, but he wasn’t sure he knew the reasoning, but he was glad that it had gotten through.

“Exactly.” Pride agreed, still nodding at her as Meredith was clearly thinking things over. “It’s an easy way to stage something like this.” He just managed to get out before Meredith slid her hand out of James’ and just walked out into the garden. Both he and Olivia started to get up, but at the hand Olivia held out he just sat down again.

“I’ll go after her. You get the information.” She said as she started toward the doorway. It was so much harder to let someone else take the lead and go and get her when he wanted to be the one she depended on, but he also knew that she needed her mom. It also gave him an opportunity to say the one thing he was regretting most in the light of all this. 

“I should have stayed.” James just blurted out in the end as he still stared at the door. Meredith had needed him back then and he had just upped and left. He’d turned and walked away, thinking it was what needed to happen for the both of them. 

“What?” Pride asked, clearly not following him. Either Meredith had never actually told him the whole story of their break-up, or he didn’t connect it with Emily’s death. Everything seemed to be connected to that one event. 

“When Emily died, I left. A few months later but I still left.” Emily had been dead for seven months before he’d gone on assignment, he’d known Meredith hadn’t wanted him to go, but he’d gone anyway. “Went to Afghanistan on an assignment.” It had been the opportunity of his career, but he regretted what had come of it, and in a way now he wished he hadn’t made that decision.

“You knew Emily well then?” Pride questioned gently, and although James recognised one of Meredith interrogation tactics, he didn’t even care right now. it was a huge relief to finally be able to talk about all of this, and to someone who was mostly neutral on the subject. He rarely got to talk about Emily.

“She’s who introduced me and Merri, I knew Emily first and we were close.” She had told him about Meredith for months before she’d finally been able to get them both in one place. That had been all he needed, he’d fallen in love with Meredith. Just like Emily had always known he would. “She was the kind of girl everyone could get along with, not really like Meredith. I love her but she’s an acquired taste.”

“She does tend to polarise opinion.” Pride chuckled, and James knew that was a bit of an understatement. Meredith was an amazing person when you got over the wall, but getting over that wall was a trial, and he hadn’t ever met many people who had been able to successfully do it. “How do you think this will affect her?” 

That was a more involved question, and James wondered if he should answer honestly. He needed to pause for a moment and buy himself a few moments to think seriously about that. “Finding out Emily is alive?” 

“Yes.” Pride was firm, but he wasn’t pushing. It was obvious that he would sit and wait for any information James would give him. That made it even harder in a way. He didn’t want to divulge anything that Meredith had told him privately, because that was theirs. But he also knew that Pride needed to know how she was doing.

“It’s gonna break her.” In the end that was all he could say. He’d seen how shattered Emily’s death had made her. Learning that that had all been unnecessary was probably not something that she could do. “She’ll never show it, but you’ve seen what she can be like, and she never really moved on from that day. Even now she hasn’t.” He was certain that her colleagues here in New Orleans would have worked that out by now. 

“That has been obvious.” Pride confirmed only a second later that they had realised some things about Meredith. They weren’t hard things to work out, even in someone as private as Meredith could be. She wasn’t always, but she could be. “Can she do this though?”

“She’ll push through, do what’s asked of her.” James knew her well enough to be absolutely certain of that. She was always completely dedicated and professional, regardless of the case. “She likes to hide things, pretend that they don’t completely cut her up inside.” That was something that he’d never had to get over, but anyone she let in now did. She had more now than she had when they’d met. That was one of the things that had surprised him most about Pride. He had got through to her, somehow. “You’re one of the first people I've seen her open up to at all.”

“Do you think she is capable of working this case?” Pride asked again, seemingly ignoring James’ compliment. Then again, it made sense that it could have been seen as more of a commentary than a compliment, but he hadn’t meant that. He genuinely hadn’t, he was just happy that Merri had someone here that she could depend on.

“More than capable. You know she would be as dedicated to this case as she is any other.” He had seen her pushing off every case that reminded her of Emily, which in reality was every case. James was actually certain that almost everything reminded her of Emily, so it was easy for her to push it aside. She did it every day.

It seemed like that still wasn’t exactly the answer Pride had been desiring. At least he kept pushing, and James wasn’t sure he was the right person to be asked. “But could she distance herself from the personal ramifications? There is still an even chance this woman isn’t Emily.”

“She knows that. She’s skeptical about her being Emily anyway, so I don’t think that is a problem. She looks on it as being a woman who needs justice, whether it’s Emily or some other unfortunate.” That was Meredith thought on everything in life. Could she save someone from being hurt. It was part of why they matched. “You know… She’s an agent for the same reason I’m a journalist, to give people information, and to help people get the truth.” That time Pride just nodded, and it seemed he’d finally given the right answer. Then came a question he was totally unprepared for.

“How are you doing?” It was asked with compassion, but James still wasn’t sure how he could answer that. Mostly because he’d been ignoring his own thoughts and feelings on this situation in favour of focusing on others. It wouldn’t serve for him to be breaking down when he was needed.

“Honestly, I’m focusing on MB and Olivia. Emily was their blood. Paul will be here tonight, and that will help a little.” He and Meredith’s dad may have never seen completely eye to eye, but they also didn’t dislike each other. Paul would be able to support Olivia though, and that would leave James freer to focus on Meredith. “Ask me when this is all over.” 

“I’ll make a point to do that.” Pride smiled a little, clearly knowing how James was feeling in a way. He was also an outsider to the family situation, though James had been involved for far longer. Maybe that was why Pride was making sure that James had a chance to talk too. That was when James realised he needed to stay here until the end of this..

“I’m going to speak to my editor in a little while, take a leave while this is all investigated.” He took a breath then smiled at Pride, and he wondered for a second if the other man realised the significance of this decision. He was putting Meredith before his job for the first time ever. It was something he would remember for a long time. “I need to be here more than anywhere else.”

“I think that’s a good choice. I’m sure Brody will appreciate it.” Pride nodded, clearly knowing that she would need him too. That made him feel a little better about it, as it meant he was clearly helping her.

“Thanks. I’m not so sure she will.” James smiled, then decided that giving the other man a heads up that Meredith and Olivia were on their way back into the room as prudent when he saw them getting to the door. “Hey baby.” He whispered and kissed her cheek as she sat back next to him, taking his hand again in hers.

“OK, so what do we need to do now?” She asked, and James was glad to see that she’d come straight in and proved him right about her focusing on the case and not letting her personal feelings hit her. He was proud of her, and it was clear Pride was too.

“Now we need to go to work, all of us.” Pride nodded to James, and he understood entirely what the man was saying. They all needed to be involved with this, even if the involvement was mostly in a support role. He was happy right now to just be here where he was most needed, and he knew that right now that was where Meredith and her family were.


	8. Chapter 8

Brody was glad she’d come back to work, and she was even more relieved to be away from her mother, for a little while anyway. She was just collating information, filing it away. The type of work she would do every day. That was when she realised that she needed to get the mail done, since Sonja wasn’t there. Almost as soon as she started she found another package, addressed to her in that same handwriting that had been sending her things all year. As soon as she shouted she knew that she needed to tell Pride, and as he was just in the kitchen she didn’t need to go far. “Pride!” She yelled as loudly as was necessary, and hoped that it was enough.

“What?” She heard a second later as Pride came through, still drying the pan that he’d obviously been cleaning. He’d decided he was making her eat something as soon as she’d walking through the door that morning, and it seemed like he was taking his time cleaning it up. Maybe he still wanted to be sure she could do her work like this.

“I’ve got another package.” That was really all she could say right now. She could have gone into how much it still freaked her out that this weirdo seemed to want her to find him, and was trying everything he could to lead her to him, but he’d decided that it would be easier to do it this way. Or he was messing with her. She assumed it was a he, at least.

“Still addressed the same way?” He asked unnecessarily as she held up the package. Not that it seemed to matter. That was part of how she knew who it was who was leaving her these things. He always addressed it the same way.

“To ‘The Jackal’, yeah.” Maybe she needed to start adding other things to her list of how he addressed this. Like how he always wrote the address exactly the same, and how he always seemed to slant the envelope in the same direction. It was all the same. “That’s the signature for this, isn’t it?” 

“We’re thinking so.” Pride confirmed, and she just nodded for a second. Brody knew that most repeated actions showed a signature of the person who was making the action. That was the important thing.

“What was the yelling about.” Loretta asked as she walked into the office, and Brody had completely forgotten that she was even there. It was often easy to do with the soft footed older woman. It was nice to have her there.

“I got another package.” She held it up then reached into her drawers to pull gloves on to handle the picture, or whatever else was in the package. She knew how to handle something like this.  “I know, I know. Treat it like evidence.”

“Absolutely.” Pride and Loretta said at the same time, then gave each other a look that always made Brody feel like she was about to get told off by her parents. Given that that had already happened twice since she’d woken up that morning, she didn’t need it again. She just opened the package as soon as she had her gloves on, finding it just having one more picture. Pride came around to look right over her shoulder.

“It’s another picture. This one looks less staged than the last one, and in colour.” Pride commented on it as she held it up a little more, clearly saying what he was seeing for Loretta who was still the other side of her desk. “She’s watching TV, Colbert I think?”

“I don’t want to know how you worked out she was watching Colbert from that still.” Brody said, shaking her head a little bit. She wouldn’t have expected Pride to have been one to watch Colbert, but he just shrugged and shook his head then looked up over her computer at Loretta, handing her a pair of gloves.

“What do you think Loretta?” He then prodded, and Brody handed the image over the desk. Allowing the ME to study what she’d been sent. Maybe she could figure out for certain if this was Emily, but then Brody realised that Loretta had never met Emily, so wouldn’t have any way to know.

“It’s hard to tell from a still.” Loretta commented after a few moments, and a few seconds later she squinted then nodded, clearly trying to give a much information as she possibly could. “She looks malnourished, and it looks like she’s a few poorly healed fractures in her arm.”

“What do you mean?” Brody asked, not knowing how Loretta could know anything about her bones from just a photograph, but she believed her entirely. Of course Loretta wouldn’t say something if she wasn’t certain, but it seemed like such a strange thing to be able to learn off an x-ray alone.

“You see the slight bending of the arm, I’d guess her arm was broken and not professionally set.” Brody looked where Loretta pointed, and though she couldn’t really see anything, she was certain that Loretta was probably right. How could she have had it set professional, she was ‘dead’.

“How common is that?” Pride asked after a second, clearly realising that Brody wasn’t able to talk for a moment. It was a good question too. Brody was sure that most breaks were seen to and set professionally unless there was something slightly sinister going on. That was clearly what Emily’s situation counted as.

“In this situation? Worryingly common.” Loretta just shook her head, and Brody wondered how common this situation was, then realised that she probably didn’t actually want to know. No doubt it was higher than she wanted to know.

“Do you think she’s healthy?” She had to ask what Loretta thought, fully of the woman’s health. Just because there was a good chance that this was her sister. She couldn’t say for certain that it was, but she also couldn’t say it wasn’t. That was the problem.

“Yes and no, I don’t think she’s  _ sick _ but she’s not healthy.” That was slightly disappointing, but at least it was honest. That was what she needed most right now, straight spoken honesty. Everything else could wait. “There is a slight yellowing of her skin indicating jaundice, which would tie into her being malnourished.”

“Treatable?” Pride kept poking, and Brody was grateful for that. She didn’t want to seem overly-interested in this, but at the same time she didn’t want to be completely detached. It was a fine line she was trying to walk.

“Easily. I can’t speak to her mental health from a picture, but I imagine that would be the biggest problem.” That was something that Brody hadn’t considered, for Emily or for this woman. What could her life have been like 

“You’re right there.” She muttered, and then shook herself. It wasn’t anyone here’s fault that they were going through this situation, so she should stop taking it out on them. They wanted to help, which was more than come of her previous teams would have done.

“It’s a step Merri.” Loretta reassured her again, and she was right it was. The truth was that Brody didn’t know if it was a good step or not. She hoped this would help them, but she still just wasn’t convinced. 

“Yeah, I should text James to tell my parents, but he’ll take that as a reason to come here.” She loved him, and she was glad he was here, but right now she had needed some time to herself, though at the same time she had kinda wished he was there. It was an odd situation she rarely found herself in.

“Why don’t you drive this over to the lab, and I’ll go talk to your parents.” That was a nice offer, and one that Pride had made before when they were dealing with her mother. He just seemed to have learnt quickly that they weren’t always the best for each other. “Have James meet you there, he can help.” That was not a suggestion she expected.

“How?” She almost demanded, because she wanted to know exactly what Pride was thinking when he had thought of inviting James along, because it didn’t seem like the most obvious of choices.

“He might have ideas about finding locations.” Pride argued, and Brody knew that was mostly bulllshit. Maybe he knew that she secretly wanted him there too, but she wasn’t going to give in easily because of that.

She wasn’t in the mood to argue, so she just decided that she would agree, and text him on his way over to the lab. She could always hope to get through things before he arrived. “Fine, fine.” She just grumbled then set off immediately, texting James on the way, then just driving down. Wondering for a moment what she was going to hear at the lab. Walking in she could hear Sonja Percy talking quietly about being right about something. 

“Hey Merri, Pride said you had another photo?” Of course Sebastian would be excited to get on with working, and trying to work this out. He’d been helping her since all this had started, longer than anyone else had been helping, so he would probably want to get it solved too.

“Yeah. That helpful to you?” She asked coming in and holding the envelope out, glad to see that Sebastian immediately put his gloves on to handle it. Clearly Pride’s lectures about dealing with these packages had stuck with all of them.

“It could be. I think we’ve got an idea where she is. Any little thing in the window of this photo could help.” Percy spoke before Sebastian had a chance to, and that made her smile a little. She quite enjoyed when these two worked together, it was normally entertaining at least.

“Percy spotted something she recognised around the window of the last picture.” Brody noticed he said  _ around _ the window, not out of it. That told her that it wasn’t about the area itself, but the building or the contents. Something had tripped Percy’s memory. “So we’ve narrowed it down. They’re here, in Louisiana.”

“Really?” That was another moment of ‘too good to be’ for her. Had Emily really been in Louisiana longer than she had been? That would be a weird coincidence, but it would be something that she could work with. That was certain.

“Yeah, They are either in Baton Rouge or Slidell.” Sebastian sounded convinced, and much like with Loretta, when he was certain about something, Brody knew that he was certain. She needn’t ask for details, because he knew, and sometimes he didn’t know how to explain.

“How did you even narrow that down?” Even though she knew he was certain, she had to know what it was that they’d caught that had lead to them narrowing the search to those two specific cities. Was it something that she would understand? She didn’t know, but it was going to be interesting either way.

“Architectural details.” Sebastian motioned, and that seemed marginally anticlimatic to her. Surely if it was truly that simple more of them would have picked up on whatever it was that Sonja had seen. So she felt like she needed to tease her friend for a moment. 

“And  _ Sonja _ discovered that?” She grinned, her voice full of mocking disbelief. In some ways, it was only half a tease, because she really couldn’t believe that out of all those on the case, only Percy had noticed some architectural design or feature that had told her where to look.

“Fuck you Merri, I watched Extreme Home Makeover you know.” Sonja’s tone was equally as teasing as Brody’s had been a few seconds earlier. The phrasing of that made her laugh, and as far as she remembered, that show hadn’t been on in years.

“I should let you redecorate my house.” She carried on, still with a clear amount of humour in her voice. It would actually be funny to let Sonja redecorate, assuming Loretta would let them. Maybe it could be Brody’s things they changed.

“I’d make you get rid of that ugly ass sofa.” Sonja said immediately, causing Sebastian to start laughing, and Brody could hear another familiar chuckle from behind her. It was as if James had challenged everyone to hate on her sofa, she loved the sofa.

“Why does everyone hate my sofa?” She asked, pretending that she didn’t know James was stood right behind her. It would be better for him and for others if she pretended that until he actually officially announced himself. 

“Because it’s awful, MB.” James said almost immediately, and she resisted the urge to poke him as he came and stood up beside her. She noticed Sebastian going back to pouring over the new picture while the others spoke, and wondered if he’d seen something.

“You painted on that sofa, you have no opinion.” that was the simple fact when it came to her sofa. James was the main reason it was the way it was now, therefore he was not allowed to really talk badly about it. James was about to shoot back when Sebastian held his hand up and motioned to them all.

“Guys, I think I have her.” He said simply, then as they all leant in he explained how a combination of certain things in the building could only be in one certain part of Slidell, and there were only two buildings standing with them both, and only one was occupied.

“Let’s go tell, Pride. Thanks Sebastian.” For some reason, it seemed too good to be true that they may have found where her sister was. She wasn’t going to get her hopes up, because if she did and this was a pipe dream, something that wasn’t realistic or possible, it would be worse than losing her the first time was. Right now she was experiencing cautious optimism, and she was hoping that that was enough to protect her heart from too much pain.


	9. Chapter 9

Getting home tonight felt even more demoralising than seeing the looks on everyone’s face when they’d got back to the office without any specific information, but loads more photos. It was hard enough to see the disappointment on Pride’s face, it was possibly worse to hear Sonja telling her softly that they’d email things and she should go home. She’d left, but she'd gone to be alone a little while before coming back here. She was proud that James knew her well enough to have not worried, now she needed to tell him what was going on. “They didn’t find Emily.” She said as soon as she saw James sat on the sofa where they normally were together right now.

“Yeah, LaSalle text me, I’m sorry babe.” James said, standing up and pulling her into his arms. It was actually nice for her to be held for just a moment. Normally she hated this, it took her too long to be comfortable. Today she just melted into James chest and tried to pretend nothing was happening.

“Pride sent me copies of these pictures.” She held up her tablet and nodded a moment. She was certain that this was the type of thing James could help with. This was where their jobs overlapped. Investigating, finding things that weren’t expected. So she knew he could help her spot things. “Want to go through them with me?”

“Course, but can we do it upstairs?” Clearly the look on her face gave away exactly how confused she was by that question. She was hoping they could be in bed, but she hadn’t been sure about asking him. He smiled at her then nodded to where her mother was sad at the dining table. “Your parents were fighting earlier and I don’t want to be in the room when your dad comes down for food.”

“I was hoping we could do that anyway.” She admitted, and James kissed her forehead. She hadn’t seen him like this in a very long time, and it was a change she quite liked. Though she loved her James, the one that could be an asshole. He was the one she’d fallen for first. 

“Come on MB.” He whispered into her ear then kissed her cheek again and took hold of her hand. As they walked past the table toward the stairs he smiled to her mom and she realised that it would only be polite to actually say three words to the other people currently staying in her house. “Night Olivia.”

“Night mom.” She said a second later, moving herself a little closer to James. Something just made her want him helping her. This situation was making her feel vulnerable, and she hated that. She didn’t mind James seeing, but she didn’t want to show her mom.

“Night you two, I’ll make breakfast.” that was not an offer Merri could remember being made again. While she wanted to say yes automatically, she didn’t know if this would work. Depending on what they found, she might need to go into work. 

“I might have to be at the office early.” She muttered quietly. Not really wanting to say no, but also knowing that she needed to do that. She needed to do what work she could to be certain that she’d done all she could to find Emily. Olivia would understand that in the end, she was certain.

“Just leave a note if you are.” Olivia smiled then waved, going back to her reports. Merri just looked at James and narrowed her eyes then followed him to the stairs. Seeing that she wondered if her boyfriend had drugged her mother. It would have made sense.

“She’s being weird.” She commented as they finally got to the sanctuary that her bedroom provided. Since she moved out of her parents house when she was 18 she’d been free, and this was reminding her why she’d liked living on her own. It just wasn’t as easy to deal with them now she was an adult herself.

“I know.” James smiled then held his arms open watching her. For a second it felt strange that he could read her so easily, but then she remembered who it was. James had always known what was in her mind. “Come here.” He whispered, and she raced into his arms, pressing her cheek to his chest.

“I got my hopes up J.” She muttered, hating that she had. It was the one thing she’d said to herself, that she wouldn’t get herself hopeful, thinking that this could be Emily. That was just a bad idea, it wasn’t going to help her at all. “I really hoped it was her.”

“MB if it’s her you’ll know soon.” James made a good point, just as he always did. he was right too, because no matter what happened there was going to be a resolution eventually. It might not be what she wanted, but it would be an ending of sorts. “Your team are working on it, and they are determined to find out what happened.”

She shook her head though, because the truth was that she couldn’t risk getting too much into all this supposition. She’d end up too hopeful, and that was a pain she was not prepared to deal with. She missed Emily too much already, this was just making her struggle to deal with it again. “I can’t get my hopes up more babe, that would hurt too much.”

“I’ll be here to help babe. I promise.”James was probably trying to be reassuring, but for some reason it wasn’t at all reassuring. It actually just reminded her that he would leave her soon, and go back to work.. Leaving her to deal with this all alone again.

“Until you leave on your next assignment.” She said a little bitterly. She knew that James wouldn’t stay in one place for long. He never did. She couldn’t remember the last time that he’d stayed in one place longer than a few weeks, or an assignment. 

“No, I’m here as long as you want me to be here.” That was something she’d heard before, so she just narrowed her eyes looking at him. She needed more from him than empty promises, if he left her again this time she was sure that would be them over. “I took a leave of absence, and I’m with you until you make me leave when you get sick of me.”

“Really?” She had to ask because she was a little surprised that he would actually do that. He hadn’t actually put her before his job ever, pretty much, and that was why she was finding it so hard to believe. She loved that he was doing it though, because it told her that he was ready to put their relationship first.

“Every day.” He then leant forward and kissed her softly, and that made her smile a little, even knowing what they were about to do now, go through pictures for any clues. She was worried about all of this. “You are more important to me than work Meredith.”

“Thank you babe.” She said quietly, because it was nice for anyone to have told her that. Merri had never been entirely confident of her place in James’ life, so hearing him tell her about it was better than she would have imagined. It was a bright spark in this very dark time of her life.

“Come on, let’s get changed and into bed. We have work to do.” James smiled and then turned and went to change in the bathroom. She just changed in the bedroom, making sure that she was actually changed, and that she remembered to take her make up off for the night.  

As soon as they sat down on the bed she started scrolling through the pictures, feeling James resting his head on her shoulder. That she was staring at one picture, and she could tell that James was too. Almost as soon as her eyes scanned over the item on the floor James pointed to the same thing. “What’s that?”

“It looks like a changing mat for a baby.” She said, resting her cheek against the top of the head, going back through the pictures. Every picture seemed to show something new, and Emily looked to be getting older through the pictures, then there was a break where it was harder to see anyone, that was where the changing mat had turned up. “Wait.” She said after a few seconds, and frowned.

“There are toys there.” James agreed, kissing the top of her head as he leant forward to see the picture a bit more. She wasn’t too happy about the fact there was clearly a child of some type. She really didn’t think about that being any sort of possible outcome from this situation.

“There is a baby.” She muttered and frowned a little at the tablet. She was still a little too surprised that there was a child. She’d always known that Emily wanted children, but she just wouldn’t have imagined this. 

“We don’t know it’s a baby.” James told her, and again he was right. She hated that he was being right so much at the moment, it was just annoying her a little more than it probably should have been. The truth was though, that was the feeling she had.

“The toys look pretty recent. Not that I have a lot of experience with baby toys.” There was nobody with babies around, but she did watch TV, and there were plenty of commercials on TV for baby toys, and that was where her opinions were coming from. Starting to go back through the pictures she was paying as much attention as she could.

“Look, MB.” James said after a minute, and pointed to a date that had been left in the picture. Most of them had been cropped out, but this one had been left in, and she felt like that that was a clue. “There is a date on this on. November 6th, 2013.”

“Two and a half years ago. Birthday cards. That’s my birthday.” She hoped that that was another sign. Sometimes it was too hard to think about birthdays, because that was always a day she had shared with Emily. The problem here was that it could be circumstantial.

“There are newborn nappies in this frame.” James pointed suddently, and Brody realised she hadn’t even been looking. She’d been too busy thinking about that birthday. It had been her last birthday in Chicago. It did make James come round to what she’d said though. “This woman has a child. A baby born 2 and a half years ago.”

“That’s how this looks.” She nodded, leaning against him a little more, seeing that that was the last image that had been sent to her. It lefet her thinking about the outcomes of this, and how she could possibly deal with it. “What does that mean?”

“Congratulations, you’re possibly an aunt.” James smiled after a second, pulling her into him and putting the tablet on the cabinet. It was a good way to make her stop obsessing over things. She was happy about that in a way, but she didn’t want to think about being an aunt, so turning it over on James seemed better.

“That would make you Uncle James.” She grinned at that, turning her face up to look at him as he laughed and shook his head. While she was a little concerned he’d agreed, she was more bothered at the fact it may have already come to pass. 

“Not what anyone wants.” He grinned, teasing her back. She had to admit, the idea of James being an uncle was somewhat hilarious, because she couldn’t imagine him being all that great at it. 

“Hopefully they can figure out where she is from these photos.” She commented after a few minutes, she hated that she was so freaked out about all of this, but at least if they found this woman there would be answers. Whether she was Emily or not.

“Come on Meredith, let’s get some sleep.” James commented, kissing her softly again and smiled down at her. She nodded after a few seconds, deciding that it was maybe worth sleeping now because she was ready to stop thinking.

“Alright.” She just didn’t want to fight right now. Sleep wasn’t entirely what she needed either though, of that she was certain, but James wanted to try and keep her calm. It did feel very nice to be curled up in his arms, and as he pulled her back, spooning against her she took a breath in. Focusing on this moment made her forget about everything else that she couldn’t fix right now. This was what mattered for the moment. He was here to help her figure it all out, and that was all she wanted. That and to figure out where Emily was.


	10. Chapter 10

Pride hadn’t been certain what to think when Patton, Christopher and Sebastian had told her they knew where Emily was being held. How they’d worked it out he didn’t know, but it was apparently information contained in the photographs, similar to how he’d guided Brody to this case to begin with. It meant that all of this was to do with the pictures, and that it was Emily’s time to be found. He hoped that this wasn’t going to be like the house, where it was a wild goose chase. “You sure this is the place?”

“Sure, this is where she is.” Chris replied, nodding as he pointed to the house midway down the street. It felt a little strange that they were here without Brody, but he couldn’t have trusted her here, he could have put them all in more danger than they would have been in before. He knew he’d made the right choice in leaving her out, but he was sure that she wasn’t making life easy for Patton, who was on the phone.

“Is Brody there?” He decided to ask, knowing that he needed to ask even though he was certain. He was sure that as soon as they learnt about this, they’d be at the office. Olivia had complained that it had taken too long for them to get information, so being right there where it was all happening would be one way to get out of the top of this. Pride was also sure that they were driving her up the wall by now too.

“Her family are up in the conference room, she’s at her desk.” Patton was the one who would actually make all of this make sense to them, and of course Brody was away from everyone, knowing her she’d be working on one of her older cases, trying to stay busy. Obviously, Patton realised that Pride wasn’t feeling exactly at hi most confident about Brody, so he did what he did best. “I’ll keep an eye on them, you go get the girl.”

“Right, we’re here, get back-up and paramedics sent. There is a car in the driveway.” That meant that there was someone in the house, and that meant there was always the chance of this going south. He hoped that there would be minimal resistance. The last thing he needed was for them to almost find Emily, and her be killed by her rescuers. That would be the worst possible outcome for everyone. As they got out of the car he motioned to the two officers who’d followed them to come with him, while thinking about the best way to do this.

“Sonja, Christopher, round the back.”  He motioned again, sure that they would be best out that. The back would be where most of the problems were, but it would be likely that the man they wanted would be at the front, where she was. That was an important distinction to be made, and it meant he should go in first.

“We’re in position King.” He heard Sonja say a few seconds later, and almost immediately they all started to get ready to go in. It only took a few seconds and he gave the OK, almost certain that nothing was going to change about this situation. Nothing unforeseen at least. He wasn’t used to being so nervous.

“NCIS, we’re coming in.” He yelled, and heard it echoed from the other side of the building, then in the went, he cleared three rooms before coming to one with someone in it, and the resemblance here made him almost choke. It was as though he was looking at his friend, and that made him believe that James and Olivia had been right, so he took a chance and just addressed her by name. “Emily? Emily Brody?”

“Ye… Yes.” She nodded at him, holding her hands up either side of her head. He could see her shaking, and he was worried about what that actually meant for her. What could have possibly happened. She looked terrified and worried, and unsurprisingly she was wondering how he knew her name. Not surprising either. “Who are you?” 

He had to think about a way to say that. She probably wouldn’t believe names or ranks, so he did what felt like was right, telling her that they were friends of her sister. Meredith Brody was probably the right person to bring up here, because at least that was something that she could believe. “We’re Merri’s friends. She’s waiting for you.” He saw the shock and surprise in Emily’s eyes, and he knew that look from her sister too. She believed him though, that was important. At that moment Sonja came in carrying a small toddler and Emily relaxed.

“Michaela?!” The woman shouted, holding her arms out to the baby who was screaming for her mother. Judging by the reaction, that was the name, and it made Pride happy to see that immediately the baby stopped crying, cuddling to her mother but still whimpering. Probably not surprising, at this time of night she’d probably been asleep.

“Is that your daughter’s name?” Sonja asked, and Pride noticed exactly how much more comfortable Emily was with Sonja than with him. Not that surprising entirely, because at least the woman wasn’t as likely to hurt her. That was something that Pride had seen a lot in abuse victims and people who had been held in violent situations. 

“Yes.” Emily nodded, and when Pride stepped a little closer to them again, Michaela started to cry a little harder again. That made him rethink that and step away again. Sonja gave him that look that women always gave guys when babies started to cry.

“She’s not a happy little girl right now, here.” Sonja handed over the teddy that Michaela had been carrying when she came in. Then she turned to Pride and stepped away a little. Clearly she’d decided that saying it too loudly around Emily and her daughter was a bad idea. “LaSalle’s got the dad.”

“Who is he?” That was maybe not the most important question right now, but it was worth asking anyway. They really needed to know who he was, and why he’d done this, but they’d have time to interview him at a later date. Today was more about reuniting a family.

“No idea yet.” Sonja confirmed then walked back over to Emily. Pride started to follow her but hung back a little. it wasn’t worth starting the little one off crying again when they were needing to get everyone out of the house. “Miss Brody, do you know who he is?” Sonja clearly decided that there was a possibility that Emily would know about him.

“I… He said his name was Teddy. I always called him Ted.” Somehow, that didn’t surprise him. Maybe it was because of all of his experience, but it wasn’t surprising that this guy, Ted, had gone by an assumed name for all these years. They had a name now though, even if it was assumed. “Can you take me to Meredith?”

Saying no to that request was harder than he expected, but at least he could tell her they’d get Merri out to her. “We’re going to take you to the hospital, Merri will meet you there.” He was sure that he wouldn’t be able to keep her away as soon as he confirmed that this was Emily.

“Will you stay with us?” She said to Sonja after a few minutes, and Pride didn’t blame Emily for wanting the agent she currently trusted to stay with her. There was something about Sonja that made some people react to her, and clearly Emily was one of those people too.

“I’ll stay, Agent Pride can go tell Merri and your parents.” Sonja looked up at him and nodded a little, and he just nodded back. She was doing the right thing, and he felt like going and telling Emily’s family that she was safe. “Let’s head out to the paramedics.” Sonja smiled after a minute and started leading her out to the ambulances.

As soon as they were out, Pride arranged for their suspect to go to the NOPD office rather than to their office. He didn’t want to force the Brody’s to face the man who had all but stolen their daughter from them. Once everything was arranged he and LaSalle set off back. Almost the moment he was through the door Brody had jumped up and ran to him, followed a second later by her parents and James. “Is it Emily?”

“Yes. It’s Emily.” He nodded and smiled at them all. He was sure that they would all be a little shocked by that. He knew they'd all hoped for it, even if they hadn’t admitted to it. So now that he could confirm that it was Emily, he was almost certain that it would throw them all off a bit.

“Where is she, where is my daughter?” Olivia asked, and while that had been the first thing Pride had expected to be asked, he still hadn’t thought of an easy way to break this through to them. It wasn’t going to change the situation much however he told them this, but he was still not sure how to do it.

“She’s at the hospital. With her daughter.” It dropped out, and he hadn’t planned for it to sound as blunt as it had. He was looking at four very surprised faces, and he realised that they hadn’t really thought too much about it. At least her parents hadn’t, Merri and James had been the ones who brought it to his attention.

“James and I were right, she had a child?” Brody asked, looking more shocked than she maybe should have given that she’d thought this first. Maybe this whole situation was what had her so shocked and surprised. He decided to just talk about it as clinically as he could to try and make it easier.

“Two and a half years old, she’s called Michaela.” He had overhead Emily telling Sonja about the fact it was a special name to her, and that it was something she’d chosen because it made her think about Meredith whenever she thought of her daughter, which was cute in a way.

“Wait. Really?” Brody stopped and at the look on her face everyone else froze, a dawning look of comprehension seemed to spread across Olivia’s face, but everyone else seemed to be as confused as he felt.

“Why… is that important?” Maybe this would be why it meant so much to Emily, something that he wouldn’t understand without being told, and maybe that was partly why Brody and her mother looked so surprised. They seemed to be convinced now that it was indeed Emily though. After a second Olivia looked at her daughter then started to speak.

“When they were children, the girls never knew any other twins. So we bought them twin dolls. Baby girl dolls.” Pride remembered how much Laurel had loved her baby dolls when she was younger, and the amount of terrible names she gave her dolls would worry him if she tried to name her children after those dolls.

“I called mine Michaela. Emily’s was called Louise.” Brody then finished the thought, and all of a sudden Pride understood the reason they’d stopped. The fact that it was something to keep Meredith close definitely meant something to them all, that was obvious. So he could tell them the rest.

“Her daughter’s middle name is Louise. Michaela Louise Brody.” He told them all with a smile, and they all looked at each other for just a second. At least it was all smiles right now, and he hoped it remained that way, and that Emily would be OK.

“See, you’re an aunty, MB.” James whispered, wrapping his arms around Brody with a smile. Pride turned away from them for a second, giving them a little bit of privacy, and decided instead to speak to Olivia and Paul.

“Is she alright?” Paul asked after a second, and Pride wondered if he should lie and say that she was fine. That wouldn’t be fair though. He decided that honesty was the best policy, and it always would work for the better.

“She’s scared. She’d only talk to Sonja, Sonja’s at the hospital with her too. Michaela seemed to take to Sonja too. I’ll drive you over there.” He offered, thinking that their family all being together may have been a better idea to help them all, and he was sure that he would be safer to drive than any of them. nobody needed another accident. Olivia shook her head though, and everyone stared at her for a second.

“Merri should go, Emily was always closest to Merri.” That looked like it hurt to say, but from everything that Brody had told them all over the time since she’d gotten here, he wasn’t surprised that Emily had felt closer to Meredith than her parents too. It was obvious though that Brody herself wasn’t entirely certain about going, at least not alone.

“I need James with me.” She asked, taking his hands and looking around the room. It was an unspoken comment that she probably wouldn’t be going if he wasn’t going with her. It wasn’t ideal, but she needed to be as comfortable as she could be.

“We’ll follow later, you make sure your sister is OK.” Paul said, kissing Brody’s forehead then nodded for her to go. Pride just started leading his way out of the office, letting them follow along. Right now he wasn’t expecting a lot out of this, but he had promised Emily that he’d bring Meredith to her, at least he wasn’t breaking his promise.


	11. Chapter 11

They had been silent walking into the hospital, Merri had let herself be helped in. She felt like she was in some sort of parallel universe right now, and it felt like it was going to be pulled away before she was used to it. They then stopped at a large room that had two beds in, but was clearly closed off for this reason. As they looked through the window Pride nodded to the little girl running around the room, having Sonja chasing her. “That’s Michaela. She’s small for her age, but otherwise she’s healthier than I would have expected.” Pride spoke, and Merri nodded for a second.

“She’s really healthy?” James asked, still with his arm wrapped around Merri’s waist, and she was thankful for his support here. She could see that he was concerned about the little girl, and she really was tiny, but Merri remembered being told that they had both been small at that age too.

“Yeah, so is Emily, physically.” Pride was very specific about the way he phrased that, and Merri knew what that meant. Emily probably had some hefty PTSD among others. At least that was something they could get through together. Pride continued speaking quietly, looking between the two of them. “She’s bruised, and almost every bone in her body has been broken at some point over the last 9 years, but they all seem to have healed now.”

“She stopped resisting.” Merri commented squeezing James maybe a little tighter than she had intended to, but he seemed to be taking in what they’d both said. Merri just felt terrible that she’d had to say those words about her sister. She was supposed to protect her, and she hadn’t been able too. 

“That would be my guess too.” Pride nodded looking at her, then back to the window. Emily was hidden by a curtain, but Merri could see her legs and that was enough for her to be sure this was Emily. It was going to be such a strange situation here, and she couldn’t imagine what else would happen.

“You’ve seen this before?” James asked quietly, and Merri realised that he had never really thought that there might be studies on this kind of situation. it was unusual, but it had happened enough that there was evidence of how people reacted in this type of situation.

“It’s common in cases like this. Normally the physical abuse only continues while the subject resists.” Pride was clinical, and Merri nodded, divorcing herself from the truth of the situation was making it easier to think. When they were dispassionate it could be anyone, not her twin sister. “Sexual and psychological continues indefinitely though.”

“Poor Emily.” The complications came in when James said something like that, and reminded her that it was her sister they were talking about. She hated that she knew all about it. That she knew enough to know how this would go was not as helpful as maybe it could have been to some others. 

“Bro-Merri.” Pride clearly corrected himself, not wanting to address her by her surname in such a fraught situation, and one where she certainly didn’t feel like the federal agent who was always in control. Right now she was adrift, and she needed an anchor. “I think it’s best if James stays here. Sonja is in there with you.”

“Yeah, King’s right MB.” James whispered then leant in and kissed her temple then whispered into her ear. It was one of the least James-like moves she could remember, but it did make her feel a little better about the fact she needed to do this. “You can do this babe.” He muttered then pulled back a little more. She could do this, but only if she knew they were both right there, waiting for her.

“Alright. Just don’t leave… either of you.” She said quietly, looking between the two of them. It was as though she was daring one of them to say they were leaving. They weren’t though, and that was obvious, and she hated the part of her brain that wanted them to go.

“We’ll be right here, Meredith.” Pride said after another moment, and with one last squeeze of her hand from James she turned and walked into the room, patting Sonja on the shoulder as she passed the chair where her fellow agent had sat for a moment. Pulling the curtain back she smiled a little coming around and looking her twin in the face for a moment. 

“Emmie?” She whispered, worried that her sister was asleep. She didn’t want to wake her sister if she was out, but at the same time she needed to see the one main difference between the two of them. She needed to see Emily’s bright blue eyes. After a second they flickered opened and met Merri’s.

“Messie. Is it really you?” Emily asked, and Merri felt the tears starting to stream down her cheeks. It was really her sister. It was truly Emily Anne Brody, and she now knew that all these years may have been struggling against something she needn’t have, but she knew it was necessary to get her here.

“It’s me, I live here in New Orleans now.” She laughed a little and took hold of Emily’s hand, sitting down in the chair beside her and smiling widely. It wasn’t easy for her to think where to begin, but she’d get there in the end. 

“Yeah, Sonja said that… but I couldn’t believe that until I saw you.” Emily smiled, and her hand ran through Merri’s hair. When she thought back to the last time they were together, and Merri remembered she’d had the short hair that everyone had hated. “You grew out your hair. I bet mom loves that.” Emily grinned, and that gave a small opening.

“Mom and dad are here, James too.” She decided that mentioning her boyfriend and Emily’s best friend was probably actually a good idea. At least it would let Emily know that their family was all there, ready to welcome her back to their family.

“You and he are still together? I always knew you were a good match.” She smiled, and clearly Emily was happy that she’d been right about the two of them. Telling the truth about their relationship was going to be interesting, but Emily’s attention had moved on to her daughter, who was climbing onto the bed. “You need to meet Cayla.”

Merri was still amazed that Emily had named her Michaela. It had been a name that Emily had always claimed was stupid, much like she’d teased about the name Meredith. That had certainly worked out well in the end. But naming her daughter for Merri’s doll seemed like something she’d need explaining in the end. “You named her after my doll?” 

“I always named things after your dolls, in my mind at least.” That somehow made sense, as Merri had named a few things for Emily as the years had passed. Emily grinned and recounted all the things she’d named for her sister. “My first car, my first artwork. My first daughter.”

“Did you…?” Merri started to ask, she knew that eventually they were going to need a full account of what had happened to Emily, and that would be hard for them all, so she couldn’t help but push a little now.

“Messie. I’m not… ready… to talk about things like that.” Shooting her down that quickly told Merri that she really wasn’t ready, and probably wouldn’t be for a few days yet. At least to tell her family. It was something different telling family than telling law enforcement. “Tell me about your life. When I can I’ll tell you.”

“Mommy.” Michaela whispered as she climbed onto her mother’s lap. Merri got to have her first look at the little girl, and smiled seeing that she was almost exactly like Emily had been at that age. that was a relief, at least she didn’t look like the monster that had stolen Emily away so long.

“This is aunty Messie, Cayla.” Emily whispered to her daughter, smiling at Merri and squeezing the hand she still held. This was going to take getting used to. Having a niece was a strange thought, but it was clear that Emily was trying her hardest. “She’s my sister.”

“Hi Cayla.” She smiled, leaning toward the toddler, hoping that the similarities between Meredith and her mother would be enough to help with the initial reentry problems. Especially given that they all needed to adjust to the fact what they’d known was no longer true. “Oh what’s that?” Merri grinned, flopping the ears on the bear that Michaela was carrying around

“Messie!” Michaela shouted after a second and smiled. Bouncing the bear against Merri’s nose then smiled and giggled, leaning back against her mother for a second before sitting forward and booking Merri’s nose again. 

“I named her bear after you.” Emily explained after a few seconds and it made her smile even wider. It had been enough thinking that Emily had named one thing in her life for her, but something so important in her daughter’s as well made her happier. “I didn’t think you’d ever get to meet her… and I wanted you to be a part of her life even if you’d never know about her.”

“Is she nice mommy?” Michaela asked quietly, squeezing the bear a little and cuddling into her mother a little more. Clearly just needing to test the waters a little more before making her mind up. Not surprising given that she had obviously been raised quite sheltered. 

“The nicest. She’s mommy’s sister, remember what that means?” Emily prompted a little and kissed Michaela’s cheek. She then pushed her daughter forward and spoke quietly again. “Give her a love.” She smiled, and Merri almost jumped as Michaela launched herself into her arms. Then she grinned a little as the toddler kissed her cheek and squirmed to get down on the floor again, sitting by Merri’s chair and playing with her bear.

“What can you tell me Emmie?” She asked, hoping that there could be something told, just because if there was something it would be easier to give a hint now than wait until she was having her victim statement taken. 

“I don’t really know much, at least of what you’d want to know.” Emily shook her head, and that made sense. Merri hadn’t expected her to know all that much. Emily started talking though, and Merri couldn’t seem to stop her. She just held her hand tightly again. “I don’t know how he got me, all I remember are the start is pain. That lasted for a long time. Then when I gave up fighting, the first time, I was pregnant. I miscarried and the pain started all over again, until Cayla.” That was a pattern that she’d heard before in similar cases too.

“Baby went bye bye.” Michaela said after a few seconds, sounding very solemn about it. More solemn than anyone would sound about something that they couldn’t understand that happened before they were born, which made Merri think that wasn’t the only one.

“Emmie?” She questioned again, keeping a tight hold on her hand again. No matter what she was certain that all of this was trying on her sister, and Merri hated that they were having to do any of this. It wasn’t fair.

Emily blinked back tears again, and that was when Merri knew her guess had been right. “I had another miscarriage, in early September. Cayla’s first full sentence was ‘baby went bye bye’ after I explained it to her.” That also tarried with when Merri had started getting the photographs that had led them here, so she wondered if that had been the trigger.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, Emmie.” Merri whispered after a moment of silence. Wishing more than anything that she could have been there to help her sister through all of this. That’s what should have happened, surely.

“Do you have any children?” Emily asked, clearly trying to push it all back to the far recesses of her mind and focus on something else. Merri could use this as an opportunity to explain that she and James had taken a break for a while, and that they hadn’t been back together all that long.

“No. James and I have only been back together for a year.” Almost exactly a year. On the 18th it would be a year. She felt like she should mark that somehow, she just wasn’t sure how. Maybe this would all count. “We broke up for a few years, but we never fell out of love with each other.” The truth was easier to say than pretend they’d been together the whole time.

“Why’d you break up?” That was the question she’d hoped wouldn’t be asked, but she couldn’t like to Emily. Merri was sure that Emily would still be able to tell when she was lying, so it wasn’t worth even trying.

“I… shut down when we lost you. I couldn’t move on, I never did.” Moving on would have meant giving up, and she’d always thought there was more to it that a simple car accident. She’d been right all along, but that didn’t change that she’d almost self-destructed for a while. “James tried to carry it for us both, but I pushed him away, and I ran away.” Running had eventually brought her here, but that didn’t excuse the beginning.

“Messie…” Emily sounded genuinely heartbroken about that, and Merri hated that because it was not her fault, and it never had been. “I’m sorry.” She whispered, and for a second all Merri could do was sit there and try to fight the tears that threatened to start again.

“No, it’s not your fault.” She smiled eventually, even though she hadn’t been able to control her tears about all the missed years, she was certain that this was the start of something good. “I just… I got my sister back. I have missed you so much Emmie.”

“I missed you too Messie” Emily choked out, and Merri couldn’t wait another moment before standing up and wrapping her arms around her sister. She had been waiting for almost 9 years to be able to do this again, and she wasn’t going to let go until she absolutely had to. It still seemed like a dream that she would wake up from, but now she knew for sure that she had her Emily back.


	12. Chapter 12

Pride hated waiting, but he knew that it was what his friend needed him to do right now. She was still the agent he had gotten to know over the last two years, but the last few days he’d seen a different side to her as well. It was nice that she had James there though. They seemed like a good fit in the end, and he was happy about that. Brody needed someone she fit with, and it didn’t seem many people would ever fit that description. As he was thinking that, the man stood beside him asked one of the things Pride had also been considering. “How’d you think they are doing in there?” 

“Looks like they’re talking.” He observed, unable to really see anything else from where he was here. James could actually probably see a little more, but the simple fact was they were both worried about how Brody would deal with this. In truth, he was worried about Emily too. This was a big and sudden change for her.

“I hope so.” James replied, and that made Pride think of all the things that had been mentioned about Emily. All of it seemed to be indicating that the Brody twins were extremely close. He knew though that that could be exaggerated in absence. The one thing he knew was that James had known them both, so asking him seemed like it would get him the answers he wanted.

“Were they are close as Brody makes it sound?” That seemed like clumsy wording, but at the smile that slid across James’ face, Pride had asked the right question, and he understood it. That was important right now.

“Closer.” James ended up saying eventually, shaking his head with a grin. That said an awful lot about their relationship. “Daniel and I used to joke about how sometimes it felt like we were marrying them both.” Pride remembered that Daniel was Emily’s fiance, why didn’t it surprise him that the two men had talked about their partners, and that they had commented on how close they were. It was another look into Brody’s life he hadn’t entirely expected. “We were all journalists, other than Meredith obviously. That’s how I met her.”

“She always said Emily introduced you.” On the rare occasion that the team had ended up talking about how they had met their partners, or ex partners, she’d always talked about it had been Emily’s fault that she’d met James, and that she’d never gotten a chance to thank her sister for that. Pride did wonder momentarily how that changed with a different person telling the story.

“Technically. We met at their birthday party and… we were pretty much inseparable from that first minute. Only ever apart for assignments, and I hated having to leave.” There was a look on James’ face that said he regretted how often he’d had to leave, and how that had led to them breaking up the first time. Pride had a feeling this time it would be harder to get rid of James. “I didn’t mind chasing her around for her job.” 

“Did you ever consider settling?” He’d asked Brody that once, and she’d said she was looking for the right place, but that she’d almost settled once. He had always assumed that was with James, but it would be nice to know if he was right.

“We were, when Emily ‘died’.” James hung air-quotes around that, and it was obvious that he was thinking of a better way to phrase that now. That was definitely something. “We were living in Chicago at the time, we’d had an apartment for 6 months, been engaged for almost a year.” That matched up with what Brody had said, but Pride couldn’t imagine Brody happy in Chicago. “Then everything changed, and you know the story from there.”

“I got the feeling you and her weren’t originally planning this reunion to be serious?” He had to ask it, because from how Brody had described it at first, they were nothing more than friends with benefits. He understood that, but at the same time he always wondered if that had been Brody trying to save face.

“It was going to be an occasional thing. But I’ve been crazy about her since the day we met, so ‘occasional’ was never gonna cut it for me.” James sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out the ring that Pride assumed had once lived on Brody’s ring finger. He looked at the younger man curiously, wondering what the meaning of the ring was here. “I’ve been carrying this around with me every day since we broke it off and she posted it to me, wondering if I should give it to her again.”

“You want to?” It seemed clear cut, to him as an outsider. But he also had never been in a relationship with Brody, and couldn’t speak to what she wanted in a relationship. The fact that he knew what she was capable of at work wasn’t the same, at all. “Would you want to propose to her again?”

“Oh yeah. That’s never been in doubt. I want to give it to her, and I want her to want it. I just don’t know if she does.” There was a hint of longing in James’ voice as he spoke about all he wanted, and that made Pride smile a little inside. He knew enough about Meredith Brody to know that James was the one thing she was certain about. “All this, just makes me want it more.”

“I think she does. She brings you up from time to time, in those quiet breaks between cases. She’s never done that with the other’s she’s dated. Or anyone else from her past.” He had known so little about her past before he’d met her mother, and then he’d learnt more. but not much. The only people she ever spoke about were the two she deemed most important. “Just you and Emily.” 

“Really?” James whispered quietly, clearly not entirely certain that he was doing the right thing, or thinking the right thing. Pride was certain that, in the end, whatever decision he made would be the right one, and it would be what he and Brody both needed. That was the most important thing for them to consider right now.

He left it at that, and watched as James started thinking. Pride was watching the two women in the room, thinking about it when he heard a voice behind him. “James. How is she doing?”

“They’re talking, don’t distract them yet.” James smiled, breaking from his reverie, and Pride just stopped and looked at the newcomers. Brody’s father just looking concerned, as he had every time Pride had seen him. Olivia looking more resolved. “Michaela seems to be causing havoc already.” James commented, nodding toward the window, and Pride just stood back a little.

“We should go in as a family.” Paul was the first one to speak, putting his hand on James’ shoulder and clearly making a note to ensure James knew that it was appreciated that he was here. That was a nice touch given all James was thinking about.

“You should, absolutely.” Pride shook his head a little at James’ reticence to do that. It was quite sweet, in a way, that he wanted to try so hard not to intrude on something he wasn’t a part of, from everything Pride could see, however, James was very much a part of all of this.

“James, you’re part of this family too.” Olivia pointed out, and that made Pride smile even more. It seemed like, no matter the family make up, eventually someone always made friends with the new members. It was obvious which way Brody’s parents wanted this to go.

“Go on, send Sonja out, we can keep watch out here.” He encouraged, thinking that it was about time that James actually do what was needed of him for Brody and go and help her, just to be there holding her hand. That would make all the difference when it came to getting her through this first day. A second later James was led in by the older members of the Brody family, and after he stood near Sonja, she slid out the door, and Pride turned to her immediately. “Things going OK in there?”

“She spoke to Merri, we may be able to get some usable information from her, but Merri’s gonna have to be involved.” That was something Pride had hoped to avoid, but thought it may have been necessary. He was sure that Brody could separate the personal and professional aspects of this case, but it was going to hit her, hard. “I doubt she’ll speak to anyone else. Probably not me and definitely not you and LaSalle.”

“Teddy, whoever he is, conditioned her to be afraid of other men, and I feel like only those she’s close to would break through.” He’d seen that before, and normally that had hampered their investigations, until Brody and Percy had joined their teams. Now, they were suffering the other side of this, wanting to help someone and not knowing how. 

“You think only James and her father?” There was one more person who he thought may have been able to break through, but there would be awkwardness that he didn’t want to have to deal with, and family politics that were probably best left alone. 

“Yeah, I would call her ex-fiance but James told me that he’s engaged again.” He didn’t think Brody knew that, from the sounds of what James had said, Brody had lost contact with most of Emily’s friends. She’d had a life to try and get on with. “He may not find it too helpful that we open up this can of worms again.”

Percy just went back to looking through the window to the room, inside, Paul and Olivia were talking to their daughter, while Brody and James were stood with Michaela, letting her work out what all this now meant. “They look like a strong family King, think they’ll get through this?”

“I hope so. All of them need it. Emily more than anyone.” There was little he could focus on other than the fact that they all needed a good outcome, and that was what he was going to focus on. Watching the people in the room he was certain that they would be able to do what was needed, and that was the important thing, really.


	13. Chapter 13

James had spent the previous night with Meredith wrapped up against his chest. They weren’t normally the cuddly, tactile type of people, either of them, but she’d needed his support. He knew sitting in the hospital and seeing the mood swings they were all being told to expect as Emily started to adjust to being back in the world was hard on Meredith. “You ready for this, MB?” He asked as they started getting dressed, ready for the day.

“I will be, she’s my sister J, I have to be there today.” Merri looked so earnest about that, and about the fact that she needed to be there. He couldn’t understand, but he knew how badly this was affecting her. She wouldn’t the the only one there, and maybe she needed reminding of that.

“What about your folks?” That was the gentlest way he could think to put it and at the same time he walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder gently. He met her eyes in the mirror and tried to smile, but she wasn’t really paying any attention, she was so in her own mind that she wasn’t really paying attention. “Mer, your parents?” He pushed again, and she jumped.

“They’ll be there, at least for a bit. Not the whole time though.” That was something, at least. They would be there and maybe that would help all of them. He understood why they going today, but he couldn’t help but think that Emily might need time without everyone being there. 

“Do you want me there?” He asked, even though he wasn’t sure about the whole idea. If Meredith wanted him to be there, then he would be there, because what she needed was his priority. He loved Emily, she was one of his best friends, but everyone was focusing on her, and someone needed to watch Meredith and make sure she didn’t push herself too far. At the look on her face he realised that maybe it was a stupid question to ask.

“I don’t know if I can do it without you. You’ve been amazing through all of this.” That was not something that she said all that often about him, but he really was trying as hard as he could. So knowing that Meredith had seen that was great and somewhat rewarding. He just wanted to let her know she deserved it.

“I’ve been all you deserve, Meredith.” He assured her, then just stood there kissing her neck for a few minutes. James knew that was one of the ways to drive her absolutely crazy, but right now he was just doing it as a way to show her that he was close to her. “I want to do right by you, I always did.”

“Yeah, I know babe.” Meredith smiled and kissed him softly. She was clearly having a problem with processing all of this, and he just wanted to help her cope a little more. “I hate that this happened when you took so much time off. To celebrate us being back together.” She looked so sad about that, and all he could do was kiss her again for a second and pull her back against his chest.

“I’m here for good MB. Until you’re ready to do this without me being here. But even then… I’d like to come home to you after an assignment.” This was not the time he should have brought that up, but now he had so he may as well go all in. It had been on his mind for so long now that he wanted to call this place home. “I want us to really be together, for good.”

“You mean that?” Meredith face was so shocked by that and James wondered if he’d actually let her know how much he loved being here. He made a mental note to tell her more how much he enjoyed it. 

“Forever.” He nodded looking at her seriously. This was important for him to tell her, so he was going to tell her why. “I don’t make sweeping romantic gestures, I don’t tell you nearly enough that you are the most amazing, funny, clever, beautiful woman I’ve ever known.” He then reached into his pocket, knowing that her engagement ring was still in his pocket, he then held the box in front of her and kissed her neck again. “I have carried this everywhere since you gave it back to me. I knew, somehow, that I’d be able to ask you again.” 

“James.” It wasn’t a disapproving comment, but he still wanted to tell her why he wanted to marry her. he wanted to ask her to let him in again. She was everything that he wanted and needed in his life, so asking her again seemed to be like the way to go.

“Let me be your husband, MB. Let me prove that we can do this, that I can do it.” He was ready to beg her if he needed, and if she still said no then he would survive and live with her however he wanted her, but he hoped that she’d say yes. 

She was just looking at him for a few seconds before she started to smile widely and opened the box then held her hand out watching him. “I think you need to put it on.” She said, and he felt giddy about that because he loved the fact that she was saying yes. He pulled the ring out and slid it on her finger, back where that ring had belonged since the day he bought it. “I feel the same for you, J.” She said after a moment and he grinned widely then kissed her hard. Maybe this was the good news they all needed, but he didn’t want her to feel like she had to hurry to get things planned though.

“We don’t need to rush into anything, we don’t need to get married immediately. I just want you to know that I’m ready for this.” He was willing to do anything that she asked to prove that this was what he wanted and that he wasn’t going to run away this time. Even though she said that she’d forgiven him, he knew that his leaving her for Afghanistan still hurt her. 

“I know you are, so am I.” She smiled a little, and he was glad to see that she seemed to be back with him more now. She wasn’t always the easiest person to be in a relationship with, so hearing her say that she was ready too was more than he’d ever expected, and he didn’t want to push his luck any further this morning.

“We’ll work it out. Let’s go and sort out what’s going on at the hospital.” He decided to say, then kissed her neck a couple more times before turning and changing. They were both off in their own minds until they arrived at the hospital. He knew that she wasn’t sure what would happen today, and that was making her anxious. Taking hold of her hand he guided her through, and smiled when she just held her badge up outside of Emily’s room for them to be let in.

“Aunty Messie!” Came a yell and a small person ran at them. Meredith managed to bend down and pick Michaela up with one arm, not letting go of his hand. He couldn’t help but smile as the toddler clamped her arms around Meredith’s neck.

“Looks like someone has a favourite.” He teased gently, leaning over and kissed Meredith cheek. It seemed like the perfect time for that, and he noticed that she’d already gone back to playing with her ring when she was thinking. After a second she just stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed. It was the kind of perfect moment he’d once only dreamed about.

“What did we miss?” Meredith said as soon as Michaela had let her lower her to the floor. That was when James realised he had arms clamped around his leg, and it was his turn to need to have Michael’s attention. Something that seemed to surprise everyone else in the room. Maybe Michaela had just decided he seemed friendly enough.

“They want to admit me for a while, to try and help.” Emily answered before anyone could say anything. James knew that she was only really talking to her sister, and it was nice to see that the years hadn’t dulled the bond between the two of them. 

At that moment a doctor stepped up, and James hadn’t even noticed him stood back there. At least it seemed Meredith had, of course she would have done. “Emily needs some psychiatric treatment to help her process all that happened. You see with people who were in this situ…”

“Mate, she’s a federal agent, she knows all of that.” He interrupted, knowing that Meredith didn’t need to have it explained to her again, and he was certain that it would make it harder for her to accept if it was continually repeated to her. She nodded at him, and he moved away with his niece and started playing with her toys.

“The question has been what to do with Michaela.” He recognised Olivia voice, speaking for the first time since they’d arrived. Michaela didn’t seem to understand the conversation that was happening and how it might change her life, but that was probably for the best.

“She won’t go to mom or dad, but she likes you, and she seems OK with James.” Emily smiled just as James was blowing a raspberry on Michael’s cheek. He just wanted the little girl to be at ease with him, and this had seemed like the fastest way to gain her trust.

“I’d say.” He heard Olivia say, and looking up he realised that she was watching him playing with Michaela there on the floor. He wondered just what that was all about, and started paying more attention. “He’s always been good with kids. I guess it’s something about him being a journalist and needing to get people’s trust quickly.”

“You want us to look after Michaela?” Meredith sounded taken aback, and James wasn’t really surprised. He just focused on Michaela and her doll, letting the implications of that wash over him. He’d always known that having a family was not on Meredith’s list of priorities, so he wondered where this was going.

“I want you and James to be her legal guardians. Until I’m well enough to be her mommy again.” How was he being thought of in all of this. He wasn’t sure, but he had clearly been factored in all along. Emily clearly had a plan, and he could tell from Meredith’s silence that she was considering it.

“I can’t say no to you Emmie, and Michaela is lovely.” He knew then that they were going to be going home with a new member of the family.  “Of course we will, won’t we James?” That was the first time that his opinion was needed, and for some reason that didn’t bother him as much as it probably should have done. He’d need to think that over later.

“What?” He pretended not to have been listening, because he knew that was what they all wanted to have happened. It would be easier for them all if he just agreed. He loved Meredith, and everyone else. This just wasn’t going to be easy for anyone involved.

“We’ll be Michaela’s legal guardians.” Meredith didn’t ask so much as state, and he just nodded deciding that an argument wouldn’t be worth it, not when he’d have agreed in the end anyway. This was a child who needed protection, he couldn’t turn away.

He sensed everyone staring at him and shrugged a little, clearly they all needed more than his little nod to Meredith, and he felt like just saying it straight was what everyone needed. Probably so the doctors in the room could be the witnesses for it. “Sure.”

“Cayla, come here.” Emily smiled after a moment, and as soon as the little one as out of his lap James stood up and took hold of Meredith’s hand again. He then just watched Emily and her daughter, wondering how this would go. “You’re gonna go home with Aunty Messie tonight, Cayla. She’s gonna look after you.”

“We’ll come visit when we can.” Meredith said as Emily sat cuddling her daughter. James knew that wouldn’t be possible as much as anyone really wanted. That was one of the problems with this situation.

“Don’t bring her, Messie. I can’t have her here, not while I’m trying to get better.” The look on Emily’s face was both pained that she was having to ask that, and absolutely certain. James looked between them and over at Olivia, it seemed like the elderly Brody was supportive of Emily’s decision. “Please?” She almost begged, and James was about to say something when Meredith nodded.

“OK. I love you Emmie.” James felt a little helpless stood there watching. Both women were hurt by this, but he knew they’d work through it. They always had before. He felt Merri’s hand shaking and pulled her a little closer.

“Love you too Messie, give mommy a kiss Cayla.” They all turned away for a second, allowing Emily a few moments in some privacy with her daughter. This was a strange situation, and getting them all comfortable was more trying than he thought. 

While Emily was focusing on Michaela he turned to Meredith, wanting to know her thinking on this. Especially given all the things he knew about her. “I can’t believe you just accepted, you don’t like kids.”

“I know I don’t, but she’s my niece, and Emily needs us.” Of course she did, and of course he was never going to turn that away, but that shouldn’t be all they based this on. They both needed to be certain they could do this, and he wasn’t sure that Meredith could. “She’s your niece too.” She pointed out, and all he could do was sigh and rest his forehead against the top of her head.

“MB, I’m happy to help with anything and everything… but are you ready for this?” He left the question hanging a few seconds, wanting her to really think about  “A kid is a huge responsibility.” That was all he could think, but he hoped they wouldn’t give up.

“We’re ready for this J. We can figure it out.” Meredith sounded confident, and that meant that he understood she really thought she could handle it. He would just be there to make sure. That was what he wanted.

“If you’re sure.” He said and kissed her softly, then noticed that their niece was, once again, sat on the bed staring at them. That was going to take getting used to too. “Hey little one, you done saying bye to mummy?”

“She’s sleepy now.” Michaela then pointed over her shoulder to where Emily was starting to fall asleep in the bed. They all watched a minute as Meredith went and whispered a few things to Emily, and they both laughed. When Meredith was back with them Michaela smiled and looked at them both. “We go home?”

“To your new home, we’ll go get you some toys tomorrow, OK?” Meredith promised, and James just shook his head. Michaela was going to end up spoilt, and he couldn’t really stop that.

“Yey!” Michaela seemed to forget about everything else, and felt comfortable enough with them. That was certainly half the battle right now, and he was just ready to see where this took them all.

“This is going to be interesting.” James shook his head and laughed just a little. He almost couldn’t believe that it was going quite the way it was right now, but that seemed to be the best thing for all of them. He would do anything to help his family, and that’s what this was, his family. It was normal, and that was probably something they all needed to accept now. They weren’t normal, but they were family.


	14. Chapter 14

It had taken almost an hour to finally get Michaela into bed alone, and another hour to get her to sleep, but at least she was now out, and an exhausted ‘aunt Messie’ was finally free to go back to talk to James. She was happy that she could do something for her sister, but she could already tell that helping raise Michaela was going to be a challenge, and one that Merri wasn’t certain that she was ready to do. "She asleep?" James asked as Merri made it down the stairs.

"Oh yeah." She replied, shaking her head slowly as she did. How did anyone have so much energy, especially something so tiny. Merri had been exhausted just watching Michaela for most of the day, but tonight had been more than she could really imagine before she’d experienced it. “That was exhausting. How do toddlers have so much energy?” She asked a little sarcastically, flopping down onto the sofa and looking up at James tiredly.

“Access to dark and mysterious forces beyond our control.” He teased back, and while Merri appreciated the attempt at a joke, right now that wouldn’t actually surprise her if it was the actual answer, so she didn’t really even want him to joke about it. It was hilarious though, she had to admit.

“Don’t even joke about that.” She scolded softly once she’d stopped laughing. That was just what she needed though, something to both terrify her and make her laugh. James was good at doing something that would cover both, and she was glad of that right now. “She seemed to settle in though, eventually.”

“Yeah, she definitely responds most to you, must be how much you look like Emily.” James said quietly as he sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She knew that likely was that she was so similar to her sister, and that would make things easier on Michaela. She seemed happy enough with James too though, and that couldn’t be anything about how he looked. She would accept it as a reason for right now.

“I guess so.” She muttered and cuddled into him, thinking about everything that was going on. She knew he’d said he was taking time off to be with her here, and she knew that he’d still need to do something. That was who James Lathom was. “What are you gonna do about work? You can’t stay here indefinitely doing nothing.”

“I’ve called a couple of local places and I have a three month tenure here in New Orleans. I’ll have to go back out on the road after that but... “ James trailed off, but turned to look at her with a serious look on his face, and clearly whatever he wanted to say to her was extremely serious. She just watched him, letting him come out with it in his own time, not wanting to pressure him into saying something before he was ready to. “MB I am always coming home to you.”

“I know that.” The one thing Merri was certain of this time was that this was home for James, and no matter what he would come back here. She had to laugh a little that when they were married he’d be able to apply for residency and never have to worry again, but he would just want to be able to know he could come home. The thing that really bothered her was getting Michaela set in a routine that was constantly going to be changing. “I just worry about getting Cayla used to something then everything changing.”

“We’ll work it out, babe. We’ll work it out.” James sounded confident about that, and that made her feel a little better about this whole situation. She just really needed to know that someone was confident about all of this, because she was the opposite of that. “What about you though?” That was also a fair question, because she didn’t have a clue, not a single one. 

“I’m going to take Cayla in tomorrow. Talk to Pride about what we can do.” She knew that the real options she had were actually things she didn’t really want to do, but she was certain that Pride would be able to help her figure out a compromise for at least a little while. “I don’t wanna give up work, but we can’t afford a nanny and I don’t think she’s ready to go into a daycare.” She worked through her thinking for James, and watched him nodding along as she spoke.

He then went silent for a few seconds, and she took the break to settle against his chest. She needed the comfort he could offer, that was one reason she was glad he was here. “You’re probably right, she really needs to be with one of us I think.” He eventually said, and she had to agree with him on the latter point. Soon she’d be more used to other people, and that would change things.

“At least for a little while.” She was going to focus on the possibility that, eventually, Michaela would be able to be a normal little girl. That would be the best outcome for them all, and the she would be able to go to daycare and school, and Merri’s job wouldn’t be as much of a worry. “Maybe Pride would let me bring her into the office. She could be with Patton maybe.” It was worth a thought, but that would require her getting used to Patton. 

“We’ll think it through. I could always keep her with me.” James’ offer was really very sweet, but she wasn’t sure how having a toddler around would help a journalist. Not that it would help a fed that much either. This was just a hard situation, and maybe taking a short leave would be for the best. 

“Yeah, maybe.” She whispered non-committally, not wanting to tell James she didn’t know if his idea was possible or anything else. she then looked up to the stairs and frowned a little. “I should check on her really. Now my parents have checked into a hotel she’s in the guest room.” She couldn’t remember if she’d told James that, but at his nod she guessed she had, that didn’t stop her going on though. “I told them they could stay but they said no. They wanted to give us time to get used to having Michaela here.”

“MB…” James cautioned, and she knew he was beginning to worry that she was getting too far into her head about this situation. He was right too, she was, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “Don’t push too far here. I promise you that we’ll figure it out.” He was once again reassuring her, but that just set her mind off again, and all she could do was think about what could happen if they didn’t get into the swing of things.

“What if we don’t, J. What if we’re always stuck not really knowing what’s going on?” It was a question she’d just needed to get out, even though it didn’t really make any sense. She wanted to have it all planned out, but she couldn’t plan this situation out at all. That was annoying her, and for some reason was making it harder to think things through.

“We won’t be, come on, let’s get to bed. We’re both exhausted.” She knew he was right, she was exhausted and she needed to cuddle up with the man she loved and focus on the fact that they were there and they were all healthy. Without that she couldn’t really think about anything. She just followed James up and changed, getting into bed and falling asleep quickly.

They’d then been woken up every hour by their niece, and they’d taken it in turns to put her back to bed, but now Merri was exhausted, and she was going to give in. She heard the door creak open again followed by a quiet, fearful voice. It was more the voice that convinced her to give in now. “Messie.”

“Cayla, what you doing?” She muttered, hoping she wouldn’t wake James up. She could feel his arm around her waist under the covers, and his soft breathing on her neck. At this point it was impossible for her to guess if he was actually asleep or just faking it. She hoped he was asleep, because then at least one of them would be partly rested in the morning.

“No sleep.” Michaela whispered, coming nearer to the bed. Merri was torn between angrily groaning and just being fed up. Was it always like this when children were this age? Merri had no idea, but if it was she was glad she’d avoided it up until now. She didn’t sleep much anyway, so it was never good when what little she got was disturbed.

“Again?” She really wanted to just get to sleep, so she lifted the cover up and motioned to the toddler. It would be easier if she just spent tonight in their bed, that would work out better for them all, and she was hoping that that would make things easier. “Come on then.”

“We said we weren’t gonna do this.” James suddenly whispered in her ear, and she felt a little bad about the fact that she’d given in. At least she could argue it, and she smiled as Michaela snuggled into her front, and she was now sandwiched between her fiance and her niece. It was actually quite a nice place to be, but she wasn’t going to use that as a reason.

“Yeah but I need to get some sleep, J.” She commented, knowing that James wouldn’t be able to argue with that. They both needed the sleep, and if having Michaela in with them would mean that they actually got to sleep she was willing to take that hit. She just really needed to sleep now. 

“You make a valid point.” James muttered and kissed her shoulder a few times. She couldn’t help but giggle a little as she felt him wrap his arms around her and put his hand on Michaela’s stomach as she was laid in front of her. 

“Tomorrow you’re in your own bed Cayla. Big girls sleep on their own.” She decided she’d give in to James’ complaining too, as it just seemed like either way they were going to struggle, but tonight she just wanted to sleep. James kissed her shoulder again and she, in turn, kissed Michaela’s head.

“Night girls.” He whispered, and Merri just closed her eyes and slid back off to sleep. It was nice to finally be asleep. She woke up in the morning still uncomfortable and grumpy, because she was still so tired. She could feel that neither James nor Michaela was still in the bed, so she wondered when they’d gotten up. 

She pulled some clothes on then started down the stairs, wrapping her arms around James’ middle when she got to him. “I hate everything.” Was the first thing that he said, and she understood he was grumpy, but that may be pushing it a little.

“Imagine if we’d ever had that baby you wanted once. Even less sleep than last night.” She sometimes enjoyed teasing him about that. Given the way the two of them were, children should never have been on their agenda, ever. She was a little glad that they had never followed through on that. It would have ended badly. 

“Whiskey. It’s the answer to everything.” James’ smile made her laugh, because of course the first thought was that they could use alcohol to control something. It was far funnier than it probably should have been, but she couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Sounds valid.” She laughed then thought about it and realised that was yet more evidence to the fact they really shouldn’t have children. She loved James but children hadn’t been her plan. Michaela was probably the closest she was ever really going to get.  “This is why we shouldn’t have kids.”

“I’m grumpy.” James grumbled again, and she rolled her eyes, looking over finally and seeing where Michaela was playing. They really needed to get her some toys so that she had a lot more that she could play with other than her three toys.

“That’s not obvious.” She replied sarcastically, enjoying being able to tell him that. She hoped that he’d pick up given that she had things she needed to do, and she hoped that James would come with her and sit with Michaela while she dealt with Pride. “Come to the office with me, then we’ll go shopping.”

“OK, but we stop by that coffee shop first.” James demanded and it made Merri just shake her head. She really wanted coffee too though, and she wanted to think that she was over not sleeping at all.

“Fine.” She couldn’t even really fight him on that, because coffee would definitely help her get through the next few hours. Maybe they both needed a nap this afternoon, if they could ever convince Michaela to have one too. “Come on Cayla.” She waved to the little girl to get her attention, and couldn’t help but grin as she ran over and jumped into Merri’s arms. It wasn’t easy to start adjusting, but it was worth it. Even if Emily wasn’t right there, her family was complete again.


	15. Chapter 15

In the week since Meredith had last seen Emily a lot had changed, at least at home. It had taken a few days, but Michaela had settled down into a kind of routine, and that was why Merri had taken the time to visit today. Clearly though, Emily hadn’t been expecting for her to come through the door, and was not entirely happy to see her there. Merri knew it was time though. “What are you doing here?” Emily asked, sounding more scared than anything, but Merri just smiled, walking a little closer. “You didn’t bring Cayla?” 

“No, she’s with James, she loves him.” Merri reassured her sister. She knew that if Emily had asked not to see her daughter that it was for a very good reason. Merri might not agree or understand, but she’d never go against what Emily had asked for her to do. Merri had just missed Emily, and really wanted to see her again, now that she could. The smile that broke across Emily’s face when it was obvious that Michaela was OK was obvious, and that made Merri happier about things too.

“I thought that she would, he’s a good man.” That was not how most people described James, but fundamentally Emily was still right. He might occasionally act like an asshole, but he wasn’t actually one. So she just nodded and let Emily carry the conversation in the direction that she wanted for it to go. “How is she settling in?”

“It’s only been a week Emmie.” She shook her head and sighed, to have any kind of result this quickly she would need to be some kind of superhero, or James would need to have the ability to see the future, she didn’t know what was expected, but it probably hadn’t happened yet.

“Still, there has to be some news.” Emily pressed, and really Merri couldn’t blame her. If it was her, she’d want all the news, and she’d want it immediately. So she thought of what they’d done that it was necessary they tell Emily about, and Merri decided that keeping it light was probably the best idea.

“She’s happy, she misses you though.” That had been obvious from the second night, and so they’d tried to make talking about Emily part of Michaela’s nighttime ritual. It was something that kept her close to her mom, and gave both Merri and James opportunity to tell stories about Emily. “We spend half an hour every day looking at pictures. I tell her about when we were kids.”

“Don’t give her ideas.” Emily cautioned, and Merri couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Clearly they were both thinking about most of the same stories from when they were young, normally where they were causing trouble. Emily had always been the leader there. Merri’s problem had been her love of climbing trees to get away from things. The school had never liked that. Most of the things though would be impossible to do alone.

“She’d need a partner in crime to do most of them.” That was a saving grace, that was for sure. She wouldn’t be able to do most of the things they’d done on her own. She was likely to be an only child, that would protect them from a lot of these problems. “James is childish, but not that bad.”

“I am somehow totally unsurprised.” Emily chuckled then stared at the wall, it was obvious that these conversation were taxing on her, but Merri didn’t know what else she should talk about. That was why she let Emily take the lead so much, just like she had done. “Mom’s still here most of the time.”

“I know.” Merri had admit that. She knew that Olivia Brody hadn’t wanted to go back to Virginia with their father a couple of days earlier. She wanted to be nearby for Emily, and Merri understood how that felt. “She’s worried about you, and just happy that she has you back. We’ve all missed you.”

“She mentioned something about… an incident… you were involved in. Just after I disappeared.” Emily asked the question so casually that it was hard for Merri to even think about it in terms of the fact it had been cause by Emily’s ‘death’. That was too surreal. Clearly she wanted to know about it though. “It apparently threatened your career.”

“I’m going to kill her.” That was all she could think. She couldn’t really believe that her mother had brought up the  _ Moultrie _ to Emily. She couldn’t honestly believe that incident had been brought up at all. It already felt like she’d never get away from the stigma of that situation, this wasn’t what she needed. But if Emily wanted to know… she’d talk about it.

“What happened Messie?” Emily sounded compassionate, and clearly she just wanted to understand one of the things that had made Meredith who she was now. It just wasn’t really what Merri had expected to have to talk about. 

She tried to think of the best way to start, the best way to explain why it had happened in a way that didn’t make it sound like it was Emily’s fault. She wasn’t sure that was possible though, so instead she just started as best she could, from the beginning. “There… You remember how I was the agent afloat on the  _ USS Moultrie _ ? My first solo assignment.”

“I remember, you were so excited about it.” Emily laughed a little, and Merri thought back to her then. She had been bouncing around from the minute she’d gotten that assignment. It had been the first thing she’d done solo, and her first time without a supervising agent. She’d finally been Special Agent Brody, and that had been important… then things went wrong.

“Well… There was a bomber aboard. Petty Officer Hooper.” That was a name Merri would never forget, a face she’d never forget. That didn’t help when she wanted to move away from all this. It just wasn’t possible though, and that was hard. “His eyes were just like yours, and I hesitated for less than a second.”

“What happened?” Emily wasn’t giving up, and clearly Merri hadn’t given her all the details she was looking for. It didn’t entirely surprise Merri that Emily was continuing to press, because that was how she did everything. She had been a reporter, just like James, that was how they rolled.

“I didn’t take the shot, he got by and blew his bomb. Five people died, not counting him.” She could still name them all, she could still remember standing trying to save one of them, but it hadn’t worked. She had been so broken by so much then. She still wasn’t sure that she’d recovered from any of that. “It was 6 days after I thought I lost you, and that memory was so strong, so painful.”

Clearly at that point Emily decided to move on from the  _ Moultrie _ and focus on another thing that she’d missed, the years that she and James had been apart. “She also said… that you and James broke up because of me.”

“Not because of you… because of grief. I pushed him away, didn’t pull my weight. I pushed him to taking an assignment I would rather he hadn’t.” Afghanistan had been the last thing, and it had pushed them apart. Driven the final wedge into a relationship that was struggling to survive. Then at least. Now they were stronger for it. “That was a couple of years after you ‘died’, but I hadn’t moved on.”

“You’re clearly together now though?” It was both a question and a statement, and Merri decided that explaining it straight up was going to be easier. They had a strange relationship, but it was what worked for them, she didn’t mind admitting that.

“We’ve been kind of back together for a year. Whenever James had time to come to New Orleans.” That had been her insistence, she hadn’t wanted to give back in to him immediately, but it had always been him. She’d tried dating others, but she knew her heart wanted him. That was why she’d broken up with Sam, so it was important that she remember that. “It’s actually a year ago today since we decided on it.”

“I’m glad that wasn’t a permanent split.” Emily smiled and nodded, and Meredith grinned back. She couldn’t really believe that she was finally getting to share all this gossip with her sister, after it being a distant dream for so long. 

“I missed you so much Emmie.” She whispered, thinking about how long it had been since her sister had been there for her to have these conversations with. It had hurt so much, and she’d felt so empty. But there was something more now, and things were looking up. “There was a hole in my heart and I just couldn’t fill it.”

“I hope you can now.” Emily smiled a little, and Merri couldn’t help but smile widely and nod. The truth was that just having Emily here and alive had healed most of that old wound. It had been such a difficult decade, but this was definitely an improvement.  

“It’s filling slowly, now I have you back, and Cayla too.” Her niece had certainly been an unexpected joy, and the innocence of the two year old even in their circumstances was refreshing. She hoped it meant that everything was going to be OK. She also knew that she was likely deluding herself some too.

“Messie… You’ve only really seen me on good days. Bad days… All I can think of is what used to happen, every day, and how terrified I was all the way.” The way Emily spoke made Merri think that she didn’t let anyone see her bad days. That was how things had been when they were growing up too. Emily had never let people know when she was down. “I don’t know if I can ever be your Emmie again.” That was the most wrong statement Merri could ever think of, she didn’t need to try. She just was.

“You’re always my Emmie, even if you’re different.” That was the truth, and Merri then just sat and told her sister the sillier and happier gossip of their time apart. As long as she could before the hospital staff came to tell her to leave. She promised to be back in a couple of days, then set off home.

James was wearing an apron when she walked in the door, and Merri had to take a double take. There was something about seeing her hardened, war-torn reporting fiance wearing a baby pink kitchen apron that made Merri’s mind utterly confused. he didn’t say anything, just gave her a lopsided grin and went on with something else. “How was Em?”

“The same, she told me I only ever see her on good days.” That was probably true, because she hadn’t exactly been there much. She’d had daily dinners with her mom, at least until today, and that had told her more about Emily’s day to day attitude and mood. It certainly seemed like she had harder days when Merri wasn’t there. “What you doing little miss?” She turned her attention to where Michaela was crouched on the floor.

“Painting.” She smiled, giving Merri a kiss on the cheek before going back to slapping paint on the paper. At least James had put down her old waterproof ground covering, it meant that she wasn’t going to be spending tonight scraping paint.

“At least Uncle J remembered to put the mat down.” She laughed and stood up, feeling James’s hands steadying her as she did. She hadn’t necessarily needed that, but it was nice to have the help, even if she didn’t necessarily need it. 

“You have wood floors, it’s fine.” He whispered in her ear and kissed her neck softly before pulling away and heading back toward the doorway to the kitchen. “She wasn’t mad you visited was she?” He shouted back as he got there, and she wondered what he was cooking that had lead to the apron.

“No, I think she was glad. Mom is driving her nuts.” That was probably not a surprise. Olivia Brody driving her daughters round the bend had been a long time thing that she was sure James would also remember. “I hate seeing her like that J, I really do. Even though she’s more talkative with me… She’s still so withdrawn.” 

“At least she’s alive.” James commented, sticking his head back around the doorway and smiling. Merri narrowed her eyes again, and clearly James decided this time to answer her unspoken question. “Cheesecake will be done in a minute. I really wanted cheesecake.” 

“Yeah. Ooh cheesecake.” James had always liked to cook when he was in the mood, and it was always something ridiculous. Cheesecake would definitely count for that. Someone once claimed it was romantic, Merri had then had to point out that most of the time he didn’t care if she ate it or not. That reminded her of how happy Emily was that they were together. “She’s happy that we’re still together.” 

“Well I’m with her.” James smirked, and all Merri could do was sit and shake her head. Of course James was happy they were still together. That swap like her saying that she was happy about it too. She was, but she wouldn’t say it out loud.

“Messie.” She heard from around her knees and crouched down so that she was on Michael’s level, smiling as she held out the paper that she’d been painting. “For you.”

“This is great. Thanks Cayla.” She smiled looking at it, absolutely no idea what it was. She just plastered on a smiled and looked at Michaela for a second thinking how to both encourage her and ask what the hell she was looking at. “Tell me about it?” Seemed the easiest way to go about it, and Michaela’s explanation apparently included Jesus riding a walking potato.  

“You’re great at this mom thing, Merri.” James said after Michaela ran off to play her own game again, and Merri couldn’t help but smile a little at the compliment. She would never have imagined being good at this, but apparently she was. “We should rethink having one of our own.” 

Well, that might be pushing it. Though she had to admit, she was seeing more of the positives of procreating. She’d let James present his ideas about that at a later time. Right now wasn’t it.“Maybe. Let’s talk about it later.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” James laughed and kissed her cheek softly before turning away again. “I’m cooking dinner.” He called back to them, and Merri just smiled to Cayla and blew a raspberry, causing the toddler to laugh loudly. She had to admit, she was enjoying caring for Michaela more than she ever thought she would, and maybe if something good came out of this, her and James choosing to have their own child would be something good. Her focus right now was helping Emily to get better though, nothing else.


End file.
